


I'm A Survivor

by ValentinLaboy



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anyone can die, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Post-Prison (Walking Dead), Prison (Walking Dead), Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 20:59:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 65,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19158880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValentinLaboy/pseuds/ValentinLaboy
Summary: The farm is lost. The youngest of the Greene family was separated from the others, and Daryl had to rescue her from the onslaught of the dead. He took her away, in the process becoming unable to find the others back at the highway. Their only choices are to run or die. What will happen in their quest to survive? Relationships will form, they will end, some will die, some won't. No one is safe, nothing is guaranteed. Anyone still alive can claim one thing.I'm. A. Survivor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There will be drastic differences between the show and this work. All, if not most, of the major villains adapted from the comics will receive an analogue in this work.  
> And of course, by nature of fanfictions, the other characters will be largely demoted to extras. However, later on as this canon diverges from the main canon, the other characters may get some focus.  
> And I am open to suggestions about original characters and plot developments.  
> 

Daryl sat on his bike and gazed over the lost cause that was once the Greene family farm. The place where everything changed in the course of just two weeks. So much changed. The loss of Sophia, the arrival of Randall and the chaos he caused, and now the farm was just…gone.

The barn burned to the ground, the very same barn where they found Sophia. It was all for nothing. Daryl tentatively touched his side, where his own arrow impaled through him. It was all in vain, because Sophia was dead the entire time.

He went back to being an asshole for it. In truth, he hated himself more than anything. He hated himself for not being able to save her, for not being able to find her. He almost got himself killed when he found her doll in the creek…and she was already dead by then.

That little girl deserved better than that. Sophia deserved to be with her mother, her weak-willed, kind-hearted mother who had already suffered through far too much in her life to just have her daughter torn from her like that.

And for what? What was it all for? What cruel twist of fate wanted the group to waste away searching for her only for her to have been dead the entire time? It was just wrong. Children didn’t deserve that. Sophia didn’t deserve that.

The walkers slowly ambled towards the darkened farmhouse, the house that had been in Hershel’s family for well over 150 years. And now it sat dark, alone, surrounded by the dead. Nothing more, nothing less than the dead.

Daryl thought about Shane, Randall, and Rick. He couldn’t stop thinking about it, because it made no sense. Shane’s story didn’t make sense, but the weirdest thing was that Randall wasn’t bitten by a walker, his neck was snapped.

Their footprints…their tracks were on top of each other, just like he told the others. Shane was definitely no tracker, which meant that they were together. He killed Randall, just like he wanted to. Which was, for lack of a better word, understandable from his perspective, but then why did he drag so many people out to look for him?

What did he have in mind for that? Unless he wanted to pretend that somebody else killed Randall. But then why would he do that? Make an excuse for the camp to start getting more violent, just the way he liked it. Whatever…it didn’t matter at this point.

He hoped that the others were alright. Everyone. He didn’t even realize just how much he cared about the others until now. He thought that he didn’t care about them except for what they could do to help _him_ survive…kind of like how he and his brother originally intended to rob the Atlanta camp blind.

He stared sadly at the burning RV, lit aflame by the adjacent barn. Dale…he hated what happened to him. How the fuck were walkers so strong that they could tear a man’s stomach open like it was just tissue? And then someone had to put him down like he was a terminally ill dog…give him the best death possible. And Daryl volunteered for it.

Wait…the RV…the kid. Jimmy. He was in it. If the RV was burning…either he left it or he was dead inside of it.

“HELP!”

The high-pitched cry ripped the air apart. It was Beth Greene, youngest of the Greene family. Daryl didn’t hesitate to turn on the motorcycle to go after her. The poor blonde girl was covered in blood, blood all over her clothes and her face.

She was horribly wailing, walkers trailing right behind her relentlessly. The girl was exhausted, barely holding on. Daryl whipped around so that his back was facing her.

“Come on! I ain’t got all day!”

With a final surge of energy and will, she threw herself onto the back of his bike, and held onto him desperately. She frantically screamed for him to just go, and it wasn’t a request he was about to ignore any time soon.

The sound of the motorcycle’s engine barely masked Beth’s horrified cries. Whatever happened, Daryl wasn’t sure if he wanted to know…but he probably will anyways. He instinctively tensed against her touch, not liking it, but Beth was too far sunken into her trauma to notice it.

He went down the road, trying to get back to the highway, only for another large group of walkers to cut them off. There was no way they were getting back to the highway. They were officially on their own, with almost nothing but the clothes on their back and the weapons on Daryl.

* * *

 They rode down the road for over an hour. He stopped at a large hunting cabin off the beaten path. By that point, Beth had calmed down, though she was still incredibly terrified…in fact the change in demeanor was more concerning.

Her face was blank, like she wasn’t even in her own body, like something else was controlling her body as she got off the motorcycle. She looked blankly at the ground, barely responsive.

Daryl looked at her face, at her body. Her clothes were pretty much a lost cause. He took his red rag from his back pocket and cleaned off her face lightly, trying to avoid unintentionally aggravating her further.

“Did anyone else make it?” Beth asked, animated by Daryl’s tender and caring touch. “Did you see anybody else? Jimmy, my daddy, anybody?”

Daryl pondered for a moment. “Jimmy…he was in the RV. It burned up.”

Beth shed a couple of tears. Daryl couldn’t have been happier than to see that. He would have been more concerned had she not shed any tears. He already knew of her previous suicide attempt, and that this could have thrown her back into her mindset.

Forgetting about how he didn’t appreciate being touched, he pulled her into him.

“Patricia…” she muttered. “I was holdin’ onto her, and they…they took her from me. They just took her from me…I just ran…Lori tried to get me…”

“Look at me, girl,” Daryl holds her face tenderly. “I ain’t lettin’ nothing happen to you. As long I live.”

Beth’s soft-skinned hands touched Daryl’s rough hands. Her emotions leaked out little by little, like steam out of a pipe. The leak turned into a full-blown blow-out, and Beth just let everything out into Daryl’s chest. She let out all of the tears, all of the grief, all of it.

The deaths of Patricia in her arms and Jimmy in the RV, people she grew up with all her life. The loss of the farm, and the possibility of the death of her entire family. Everyone she ever loved just ripped away from her in the span of a single night.

* * *

 Daryl carried the frail girl into the cabin…almost a cheesy bridal style. He set her down on the couch to let her rest off the stress of the night. He took a look around the place. It wasn’t the most secure, but they could definitely stay here for a little bit, just the two of them.

There was a large lumber axe in the back, which was just a shed. There were also a lot of wooden planks around. They could probably board up the ground floor windows pretty good with these, as long as they had the tools for it.

The bed on the second floor is a nice soft queen size mattress. All the trophies around the cabin all pointed to one thing: the person who lived here from time to time wasn’t that different from him. Taxidermist, hunter, poacher, one of the like, except that Daryl wasn’t a poacher.

This place wasn’t anywhere near completely secure, but they could make it a little bit safer. These woods around here would have a nice supply of squirrels, possums, snakes, and the occasional deer.

A lot of stuff brought him back to his earlier years, before the outbreak. He and Merle would drift around the state, breaking into and staying in places like these. They drifted everywhere, until either Merle got arrested or started hooking up with anyone with a skirt who was willing for him.

Daryl stopped caring about that years ago. And even before then, when he did have his own share, it was nothing but meaningless. It was just sex that he was barely there for. A few minutes of thrusting with a rubber until he was done, and that was it.

Next to the bed was a dresser and a wardrobe. The wardrobe had a bunch of coats and jackets, all men sized, his size. Too big for Beth, but they would work in the winter months anyways. The clothes were also roughly his size…maybe they needed to make a couple of trips to get some clothes appropriately sized for her. The bathroom was up here too. It still had hot water.

There was also a long sword on the wall…it looked like a katana…except without the curve.

Satisfied with the security of the cabin for the time, he returned to Beth. She was upright on the couch, seemingly calmer and a bit more at peace.

“You alright?” Daryl asked.

“Yeah…a little bit,” Beth answered.

“This place…I think we can stay here for a little bit. Whoever was here, they’re long gone. Cabin’s got its own propane system, so it’s got hot water. You go ahead and get cleaned up. The shower’s upstairs.”

* * *

 Beth sat in a tub full of nice warm water, hugging her legs to her body. Her unkempt hair soaked up water like a sponge and the blood soaking her body spread into the water. She relaxed into the warmth…almost like it was someone hugging her, like when her mother would hold her close after a nightmare.

It was almost like she was a baby again. A baby developing inside of her mother, in a warm nourishing liquid where she grew into a little girl, completely unaware of the world around her. She had no memory of that time of her life, just like everyone else. However, it was the closest she could come to seeking that perfectly safe time…back when she was unaware of everything.

She took one breath after another. Her stomach was squeezing and heaving after the massive hurricane of grief, despair, and adrenaline that kept her functioning for the past several hours. Coming down from these emotions left her mind and body in tatters. Outwardly, she seemed physically alright.

Inside, she was torn to pieces. Her heart rate pulsed from being dangerously fast to the point where even she wondered if it was still beating. Her feet and legs felt like mush from the sprinting she did to escape the walkers.

Her hands trembled with residual horror. She was still at the farm, running for her life, still feeling Patricia getting torn apart in her hand. The sounds of her death, her screams, her flesh tearing, squelching, and ripping to pieces still rang through the area…even though now they weren’t.

She was still at the farm in her head…even though in her heart, she knew she was safe…for now. Safe in this little bubble of the harsh reality they were living in. A world that took life far more readily than it gave.

Beth washed off all the traces of blood, staining the bath water. She stepped out of the water and dried herself off the best she could, which also stained the towel a little bit. The drained water left a little stain of its own. She’d have to clean that up later.

The clothes in the closet were far too big for her, but it was better than wandering around in just a towel. It was like she was still naked, especially on top. No bra, no underwear, and just clothes way too big for her. It was like she was wearing air.

Daryl wasn’t in the cabin. Beth realized that he was probably hunting when she found that there wasn’t any food. The owner must have bailed with all their food. Hopefully, they didn’t try for Atlanta.

Beth sat in front of the fireplace that he ignited and left on for her.

* * *

 Daryl claimed his seventh squirrel on the hunt. He hadn’t seen any deer, or any other animals around at all. These ones were good enough. They were intelligent enough to avoid the walkers, nutritious, and best of all, not intelligent enough to avoid the cold hunter that was Daryl Dixon.

However, he knew he couldn’t be the one taking the full brunt of hunting and scavenging. At some point, Beth would have to learn. He’d teach her in good time.

He smiled when he caught one more squirrel, and then called it a day. The sun was already low in the sky. It wasn’t so late, but with winter rapidly approaching, the sun was setting earlier and earlier.

He returned to the cabin to find Beth warming herself in the fire he left for her.

“Hey, girl. I got us something to eat.”

“Finally. I’m starving.”

The squirrels were a far cry from the full meals she was used to back on the farm. Nothing tasted better after a full day without any food whatsoever. They split the squirrels evenly between them…except for one that Daryl gave to the younger Beth.

“No…It’s yours…” Silent rejection from Daryl. “Fine…”

The pair spent several quiet minutes just sitting in front of the fireplace, poking and feeding it. On instinct, Beth leaned into Daryl’s shoulder. Once again, he flinched back from it, though he didn’t push her off.

Her voice uttered two words, signaling her hopefulness.

“They’re alive.”

He looked down at her.

“They’re somewhere out there. I know it.”

Daryl wasn’t so hopeful. “I doubt it…”

“Why? If we made it, that means others could have. My dad, my sister. Your friends. I believe it.”

“Even if they are. How are we ever gonna find them?” Daryl pointed out. Beth silently shrugged and leaned further into him.

It was true. Even in the old world, people could spend years in the same city or town and never run into one another. How the hell were they ever gonna find their way back to the group? Perhaps, fate would do that for them. Fate would eventually bring the group back together.

Daryl believed that the group went back to the highway where they left supplies for Sophia. By now, they could’ve been anywhere. And the worst part was that they didn’t have a map of the county.

Daryl glanced down at the crown of gold blonde hair on his shoulder.

No one in his life ever gave him a sense of natural affection. No one. Not even his brother Merle. What would they bond over? Drugs, assault, neglect, abuse? Not the best bonding methods. Nobody ever needed Daryl, he was just a worthless piece of meat that nobody valued.

“Daryl…thank you…thank you for comin’ back for me.” Her hand touched his chest area. Unlike when she grabbed him back on the bike, he moved her hand away from his body. He moved away from her to glare at her. His voice matched the pure look of rage in his face.

“What? You think I’m the kind of guy that wouldn’t?”

“No…no. I…I’m just glad that you did,” Beth clarified. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

An agitated Daryl leaned back and away from Beth. The guilty girl left him alone and walked up to the bed. She threw herself onto the bed and held her face in her hands, muttering quiet obscenities to herself.

“God Almighty, Beth…”

“What’s wrong?” Daryl said. She didn’t even hear him come up the stairs, a testament to his natural stealth as a hunter.

“I’m just another dead girl…”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I’m not you…okay. I’m not like you, Rick, Andrea, Maggie… I’m not strong like you. I won’t make it.” The hunter was taken aback by the sheer hopelessness in her voice. As it turned out, her words earlier were a simple attempt to try and convince herself that there was hope.

“Don’t you remember what I said? I said I ain’t lettin’ nothing happen to you.”

“Yeah. But you’re not always gonna be there are you? I mean…look at me.” Beth stood up. “Just look at me. Look at this.”

Daryl glanced down at her wrist, with a freshly healed scar on it.

“I’m not strong. I’m a coward, and I’m weak. I can’t do anything for myself…I’ll just get us both killed,” Beth said. She sounded even more despondent, resigned. “I mean, hell. I couldn’t even die the way I wanted to.”

Daryl charged at her, overwhelmed with horror. Beth…she fell back into a suicidal spiral. He couldn’t let that happen to her, never. Not while he was around. He pulled her into his chest, taking the full brunt of her emotional outburst, all her fists trying to punch him away.

He forgot why he hated people touching him, forgot all about it in order to ensure that Beth wouldn’t attempt to end her own life. Not again. Not after the last time. There was no way that he’d be able to save her if she attempted…and likely succeeded.

“You are not going to die. I ain’t losin’ you, too.” I can’t lose you too.

Beth calmed down in his arms. As she calmed down, he set her back down on the bed. He knelt in front of her to make sure that she was alright. Her breathing slowed down, became more stable.

“Maybe we should get some sleep,” Daryl suggested. “Couch is all mine.”

“Please stay with me,” Beth requested. Daryl sighed. He went to the wardrobe and changed his shirt. Beth jumped a little when she saw his bare skin. At first, it was the usual. Her virginal self being shy at the presence of a muscular attractive man without a shirt.

But then, for a brief, split instance, she noticed something that made her jump for a far more sinister reason. The plethora of scars across his back. Some thin, like they were made with a knife. Some thick, like they were made from constant contact with a belt. There was a small one in his side,

Daryl plopped onto the bed, distant from her…until she, in her sleep, rolled and cuddled against him…and he didn’t flinch away from her.

He went to sleep, accepting a small gesture of affection from her. And also, he was determined to keep her alive in the best ways he knew how. Nothing would kill them as long as he was around.


	2. Chapter 2

A group of seven walkers wandered through the trees, ambling aimlessly in search of something living and moving to eat in the late evening snow…until Beth Greene tore through them with a knife and a machete like a twister through a town.

She was alone in the trees, crossbow in her arms, with two rabbits, and three squirrels on her as well. The animals were getting scarce. The walkers were scaring most of them away, or just eating them entirely.

Beth retraced her steps, checking various traps. None of them held anything, caught any animals. There were plenty of tracks around from walkers. No signs of any other animals. No disturbed snow, broken leaves, nothing to indicate animals were present in the area. At all.

Turned out that she was wrong. There was a single owl perched in a tree. Beth took aim for the whole of three seconds and fired an easy shot through its head.

She made her way back to the cabin. Daryl was waiting for her inside. He got sick from some virus. Beth went on several runs, and even taught herself how to ride Daryl’s bike, but she couldn’t find any antiviral medications. The best she could find were minor headache and fever medications, which marginally helped.

The symptoms were consistent with the flu, and they never progressed past anything other than that. Beth luckily didn’t get sick. She took care of Daryl, helping him stay safe from the cold and focusing on feeding him. Melting the snow was a good way of getting fresh water.

She came inside and went straight upstairs, checking on the recovering Daryl. His sickness had passed, with his temperature seemingly normalized since yesterday. His body was still weak from the infection.

Him sitting up on the bed was a good sign.

“Hey, girl,” he said.

“Hey. How you feel?” Beth touched his forehead, making sure that his fever wasn’t coming back or the like. He leaned into her hand, appreciative of her soft skin. She was like a mother to him all this time.

“Much better. Whatever the fuck happened, it ain’t hurtin’ me no more.”

“Good. We wait one more day, then we go. Walkers fuckin’ everywhere.” Beth started picking up some of Daryl’s more foul language habits. She refused to pick up his smoking habit. She even threw away his cigarettes. They had no use other than increasing his risk of cancer. He didn’t seem too upset…which made Beth think that he was going out and finding them elsewhere.

Luckily, he wasn’t. She could tell by the absence of the smell of smoke on him.

“This place was nice while it lasted,” Daryl muttered. Yeah…it was nice. But the propane tanks were almost empty, and they’d drained the available food in the area, and the walkers were starting to pour in. It didn’t matter what this cabin used to be, it only mattered what it was now.

They went downstairs and enjoyed the last meal they’d have in this cabin together, roasting Beth’s game over the fireplace.

“I gotta say, I’m impressed. Two months ago, I never thought you’d get this good this fast,” Daryl commented, feasting on one of the squirrels.

“Thanks. When all you do is repeat the same shit over and over, you get pretty good at it fast.” Beth leaned against him, sharing warmth with him. The warmth that she felt right now…she realized that it was different. Not physical warmth, the kind of warmth that made your heart melt and made you feel relaxed.

Daryl felt the same thing, feeling relaxed and a bit more lifted in Beth’s presence, especially contact. The first day he arrived in Atlanta, the one thing he hated more than anything was being touched. He couldn’t even keep himself from flinching back from Carol…Carol of all people. The sweetest person in the group, and he still flinched back from a tender kiss from her. Not anymore.

* * *

 Daryl woke up first, finding Beth wrapped around him, as usual. They always shared the bed, sharing the warmth as the cold night settled in. She was still deep asleep. Must have been from the stress of taking care of him these last couple of weeks when he got sick. Fucking walkers everywhere, and Daryl nearly died from getting sick with the flu. That would’ve been a hell of an anticlimactic way for him to go after everything.

Her hand rested on his stomach, her head on his chest. She looked so peaceful. Yesterday, he could see the dark circles, the baggy sacks under her eyes. She clearly hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep.

Daryl felt like shit for it. Even though he knew it really wasn’t his fault for suddenly getting debilitatingly sick, he still felt like shit for being reduced to what amounted to a freeloader. He didn’t like relying on others. He always relied on himself, never could trust anyone else.

Beth proved that there was one person he could wholly trust. Now it was his turn to care for her for a little bit. Let her catch up on some sleep that she so needed.

He still clearly remembered that night. The night of the loss of the farm, where he and Beth got stuck together in this cabin, having been chased away by the herd. The poor girl he saved that night…the girl who was cuddling herself against him right now was nothing like that girl.

This girl…she was strong. She took his lessons to heart, learning in a couple of months what he learned over his whole life. She wanted to learn, wanted to be strong. That night, she was weak. She was meek, and she didn’t believe she ever stood a chance.

The last two weeks proved otherwise. Beth Greene only looked like the blonde farmgirl. She now was an entirely different person.

He was proud of her. Very much so. He had little faith in those he considered weak. Beth restored some of that faith. People who were once weak to this world could become true and strong fighters. It was possible.

He smiled looking down at the blonde hair, grateful that she learned quickly. He didn’t feel that he needed to worry too much about her.

When Beth finally woke up, she seemed groggy to an extreme, not used to getting a good night’s sleep. Stress over his welfare was a nice natural foolproof alarm clock. That stress was gone, allowing her some legitimate rest.

The girl fought through the grogginess. She sat up on the edge of the bed, running her fingers through her hair. She groaned in discomfort.

“Man…how long have you been awake?” Beth murmured, still drowsy.

“Couple hours. Didn’t wanna wake you.”

“Thanks. We should get goin’.” Beth stood up, waddling her way down to the first floor. Daryl lazily watched her go down the stairs, suppressing some laughter. Beth behaved hilariously in the morning. It was a sure sight to see. For the world they lived in, Beth’s morning alter ego was a nice welcome relief.

To see the ingenue-esque Beth Greene acting like she’s drunk…It was one of the funniest and cutest things he’d ever seen.

* * *

 Daryl stopped the bike in the middle of the road. He and Beth discussed their next move.

“We could head to the ocean. Work our way there so that one side of us is protected,” Beth suggested.

Daryl was a little bit skeptical. “A good idea. But if I remember correctly, there was a herd in that direction before I got sick, right?”

“Yeah. Maybe around a hundred,” Beth answered.

“More than a week ago. It could be double by now.” Daryl didn’t look at Beth, instead, looking around for walkers. The cold was making them sluggish, but they couldn’t afford to get soft.

Beth looked down at the ground. She knew Daryl was right.

“Let’s just keep goin’ till we find signs. See where we could go,” Daryl said. Beth trusted him implicitly.

“If only we had my family’s county map, this would be much easier,” Beth muttered.

The pair rode away on the bike, hoping to find anything. They hadn’t had to go very far from the cabin. They had water, game to hunt, and a lot of other reasons to stay. They couldn’t move around with Beth being such a weakling. Then Daryl got sick, and then the walkers started chasing away the animals.

Beth held onto Daryl from behind, locking her hands on his chest. She really wished that they had a car. It was too cold already. Having the wind chill from riding on an exposed motorbike would only exacerbate the problem. They didn’t have much a choice.

Beth’s coat only shielded her from so much. It was like knives were flying through the air, piercing the coat, sucking away the heat from her body. Daryl’s body was the only thing that even remotely shielded her from the freezing air.

He didn’t let it show, but the cold was affecting him equally. And unlike Beth, he had no shield in any form, including a person. He powered through the cold, not letting it drain him or distracting him from continuing moving forward.

He came to a four-way crossroads after fifteen minutes of riding. Great…proverbial situation. Which way to go. Back the way they came? Continue forward? Go left? Go right? Decisions…decisions.

On a hunch, Daryl turned right. He didn’t know why. Something inside of him, a small vocal part just told him to go right. He didn’t know or have an inkling of what might be in this direction. Could be nothing, could be something. Hopefully, if there was something, it wasn’t death.

He kept an eye on the gas meter. They rode on for over an hour and a half. Daryl was so focused on what was in front of him and the lowering gas meter that it was Beth that had to point something out to him, tell him to stop so that he could look at it.

“Daryl, stop!” She left the bike and went back to a right turn in the road. It wasn’t very well used, but Beth sensed something about it.

“What is it?”

“I think we should go this way,” she said.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just think maybe followin’ in other people’s footsteps might not be a good idea.” She had a point. What good was it to go down this well-worn path if it only led them to places that had already been looted? Plus, the bike was running out of gas. They needed to stop anyway, find some more.

Daryl decided to give Beth’s hunch a chance. Down the road, it was mostly unused. The path looked like it mostly served cars. And then they realized why. At the end of this path was a large wrought iron gate…with an iron key in the lock and a severed arm on the ground. It was as old as the apocalypse.

“This guy. Tried to get in before the walkers got him. Looks like it didn’t work out,” Daryl muttered.

The key turned without trouble, opening the iron gates. They were heavy. It took both him and Beth to open and close it. The door locked automatically when it closed. They rode down the way of this path until they reached what looked like a big mansion. This place…it was huge.

This place was big.

“Fuck…” Daryl interjected. “I ain’t never questionin’ your judgement again.”

Beth couldn’t bring herself to smile at how utterly lucky they got just now. They lost their cabin, only to find something better not even the next day. What cosmic forces were at force to do this for them. Hell, it can go back further, how right after the loss of the farm, Beth and Daryl found that cabin.

The pair took no chances. Even if the area seemed clear, they still had to make sure that this place was secure. They entered the mansion together, watching each other’s blind spots. They split up to investigate the house.

Beth investigated the upper floors. The rooms consisted of a large master bedroom, a large bathroom, an office, and a spare bedroom. The master bedroom had a fireplace with it. The entire upper floor was clear. No signs of activity for multiple months.

Daryl stayed on the ground floor. The kitchen, dining, living, and family rooms were here. There was a pantry full of food. Most of it hadn’t expired yet. There was plenty of canned food, more than enough to last for a few months.

“Fuck yeah.”

The house was clear of walkers. The person who tried to unlock the gates. He must have been alone, and no one else happened upon this place. Left all the supplies just for Daryl and Beth.

Elsewhere, outside of the house, Daryl found a generator. It was never turned on, and still full of fuel, with spare gas containers nearby. He took one to refill his bike. After that, he turned the generator on. To his delight, it worked. They’d have heat, flowing water, lights, everything they needed. Maybe not the lights. Wouldn’t want to draw unwanted attention.

Beth stepped out onto the balcony. She was happy for the awesome bounty they found. However, she knew that this luck wouldn’t last for long. Luck always ran out in a dark world like this one.

But now, she could enjoy a few moments. Just a few moments of feeling a bit secure. Secure…how could she? This house was nothing like the Greene family farmhouse, yet it was so similar. A large house with a lot of available land. Was this place doomed like the farm?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just know that this won't be a tame fic. There will be hot times, there will be cold times. Violence and stability. Everything. The Walking Dead is not for slouches, and this work will not be either. No one is safe. Maybe hated characters in canon will get a shot at redemption here. Maybe loved characters won't make it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth's demons resurface.

While he was outside, Daryl investigated the perimeter of the property. It was way too vast for Daryl to investigate it all in the span of a day. The walls looked like they were made of legitimately strong stone. Something strong. It would take something legit to get through this stuff.

The gate itself was another matter. As flimsy as it might look, it could withstand some heavy-duty impacts. No ordinary old cars were getting through this barrier anytime soon. Tomorrow, he’d investigate more of the property.

This place. It was a miracle. There were no other words to describe it. The fact that this place was pretty much untouched by the outside, not even by walkers… That alone meant that this place had some good security, physical barriers to keep the living and dead out.

He stopped and looked out of the wrought iron gate. As he looked out, he realized something. This place. This place was so secluded, so cut off physically from everywhere else, that a recluse living hear may not have ever learned of the apocalypse that overtook the outside.

It was nice. But also dangerous. He’d have to leave periodically, make sure that he didn’t get soft. He could buy into getting comfortable, but he couldn’t get too much so. That would be a fatal mistake. Maybe he should take Beth with him, make sure she stayed just as strong. Go out, find more gas, more food.

With this kind of house, they could never have too much. Maybe they’d eventually find a cube van full of food or something. No. They wouldn’t have _that_ much luck on their side. But that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t find something. Even if not, the experience of going outside the walls would be important.

This place wasn’t going to last forever. Even if lasted a while, there would inevitably come a time when they’d have to leave this place behind. If not permanently, then they’d eventually run out of supplies. Better to repeatedly go out, never lose the edge than to run out of supplies and desperately try to find more supplies and burn out from lost experience.

Hopefully, they’d find ammo. Good amounts of it. They’d need it if they ever encountered Randall’s group, or any other hostile group for that matter. Daryl realized that he was a man who came to be his best in this world. Others might become…more sinister in a lawless world.

Wow…Daryl realized that Beth was still so new…so innocent. Killing walkers was nothing, that only took her a couple of days to get used to. But…in this world, humans were the greater threat. Walkers were predictable, but other humans weren’t…Beth had yet to see that, to see the darkness that lay within humans.

Daryl was more than prepared for that. He faced that kind of violence all his life, to the point where he knew he could take a life without batting an eye. He wouldn’t like it or enjoy it, but he could do it.

Beth…she was a different story. She was a moral person. She never once berated Daryl for some of his more asshole tendencies, except for his smoking habit. Even then, she didn’t cruelly yell at him. She didn’t like that he was risking life-ending lung cancer at a time like this.

Daryl was more than confident in her hunting and walker-killing skills. He also believed that she would die quickly if they were to face a human threat.

The snow falling from the ground signaled his time to head back. It was coming down harder and harder, piling up the snow already on the ground. Northern Georgia…this wasn’t normal. Not this much snow.

“Fuckin’ great.” It was a snowstorm blowing in. Two years ago, this kind of snowstorm would shut down Atlanta and the entire state. Nothing left to close down, but snow still presented dangers. Hypothermia, especially. And in a more mundane sense, ice on the roads. Snow on the roads that wouldn’t have anyone to clear out.

* * *

 Beth sat at the dining room table, examining something below her on the table gleeful and joyful. Nearby, Daryl sprinted back into the house, drenched in sweat and snow.

“When did you go outside? I was lookin’ for you,” Beth said.

“I turned on the generator. It’s full. I checked out the wall around this place. Ten feet high, iron spikes on top, made of stone a foot thick.” Daryl cleaned off the snow from his dark hair and his pale skin. Beth chuckled slightly at his plight.

“Take a look at what I found in the office upstairs.” Beth showed him a map of the county. Daryl sat across from her, exhausted and sweating. It was a…bad idea to run around that hard in heavy clothing.

He took a look at the map. It took him a few minutes to discern where they were on the map. Once he figured it out, he started circling other parts in the county, places he knew where they could find shopping centers, other places where they could find more food.

Daryl realized that Beth’s hair was wet as well…down and brushed out…and she was wearing clean clothes that he’d never seen before. Beth smiled when she saw him finally realize it.

“There’s nice hot water. I just took a shower upstairs, a couple of wardrobes in the master bedroom. I think the clothes will fit you…maybe.”

Daryl smirked and went upstairs. Sure enough, the mirror was still steamed over. The bathroom itself felt warm and was oddly clean. He tested the shower water, and sure enough, there was nice steaming hot water. Almost like the CDC, except this place probably didn’t have a self-destruct mechanism.

He shed his clothes like snakeskin. He wandered naked into the bedroom and found a set of clean clothes. The button-down shirts were a little small…he probably wouldn’t be able to fully close it. Oddly, the pants were his size…guess somebody had a liking for snug shirts. He was gonna stick with his own dirty shirts for the time being.

He turned the water to the hottest he could handle. The water fell from the spout in the ceiling, singeing his skin. It washed away all the dirt, all the grime, and the walker blood that he still had on his body. It was like being baptized. The water washed away all traces of Hell on his body…if that was how baptism worked…or whatever.

There were some traces that could never be removed. The gaping scars across his chest and back, especially his back. Most of the ones on his chest were subtle…visible, but you couldn’t feel them. A couple of them were thick, protruding, especially the one close to his shoulder.

But they were nothing compared to the ones across his back. The numerous thick scars all over his skin. Some of them almost a foot long, and others that were an inch thick. All from the hands, blades, or belts of the man who called himself his father.

The soap scrubbed over every part of his body. Shampoo soaked his short hair. It all cleaned him up. Made him feel clean, too. Not just of the grime, but from the stress of everything that had happened up until then. The hot water steamed the stress away, all the psychological pain of being in an apocalypse.

This water…it just felt so good. So good…he didn’t want to leave the shower. Unfortunately, he eventually had to, if only to conserve water. He got out of the shower and dried himself off with a nice towel. He didn’t care if it was decorative or not… he never even understood the idea of a decorative towel.

Why the hell would someone get a towel that you could never use? It was just meaningless. If something has a purpose or a function, use it. You only get decorative shit if that is its only purpose.

Kind of like Daryl’s angel vest. It was sleeveless, thin leather, and had no other function other than that he liked it. He thought it looked cool.

Speaking of which, it wasn’t on the floor where he left it when he got in the shower. How did he not notice Beth in here?

Whatever, it didn’t matter…though he wouldn’t just let her off the hook for barging into the bathroom while he was in the shower…which had a clear door. He’d chew her out for it later.

He wiped off the mirror. He was a bit surprised by the creature he saw in the reflection. His skin was relatively tan, though light in so. The scars were much more visible on his chest, since there was no grime covering them up. Not really…they were still faint, but he always knew they were there. Still couldn’t feel them on his skin, but it was like he could.

Which brought back out the stress that he washed out in the shower. He buried his face in his hands, trying to forget the stress, the reason he was so weighed down. He was so used to carrying such a painful weight that he had almost no memories of what it felt like not to have that weight, that pain on his shoulders.

Whenever that weight was lifted from his shoulders, it was like his body was empty. He was so used to having pain that once pain was gone, there would be this vacuum of emotion inside of him. He never had something to latch onto, something to replace the pain. The pain was better than the nothing he felt without it.

He looked in the mirror once again, and this time, he recognized the creature in the mirror. The downturned lips, the lack of emotions, the tense body. This was Daryl Dixon.

* * *

 Beth passed some of the time organizing the food. She took out everything that was expired, and the perishables. Most of the food in the cabinet was still good. All of the canned foods were still good, obviously.

The fridge and freezer were full of rotting foods. The smell nearly made her lose her breakfast. She powered through it and cleaned it out, taking the meats out of their plastic and paper containers and burying the meats outside. She tossed the plastic into a trash bin nearby, one that she dragged to the far side of the house.

Not like anyone would ever come and get it. Plus, trash would probably not even be a byproduct of anything anymore. Anyone who was left alive, odds are they weren’t wasteful. Plus, most products in this day and age would likely be organic, not plastic. Not anymore.

It really was cold. The snow was coming down hard, but she powered through it so that the house would be clean and not smell like rotting meat. Beth sprinted back into the house once she finished, shaking off all the snow, walking back to the master bedroom upstairs. She wanted nothing more than to relax for a bit.

“How does it feel havin’ all that snow all over you?” Beth jumped out of her skin. She didn’t think he’d be downstairs after his shower.

She was ready to say something until she saw that he was bare-chested. The button-down plaid shirt he had on was open, completely unbuttoned. It exposed his chest to Beth.

He was fit. Not super muscular, six-pack and hard pecs. His chest was built to match his arms. Nicely toned, not too extreme. Just perfect. Sculpted like a statue carved by Michelangelo. There was this…urge. This strange urge to just touch him. A weak one, but there nonetheless.

Beth chalked up her nervousness to the fact that she was just so inexperienced with males.

Contrary to her father’s paranoia, she and Jimmy never went past kissing. She never saw him without a shirt on. It was a little odd. She never reacted this way when she saw other boys at school without their tops on the football field. Maybe it was because Daryl was a mature man, not a teenage immature boy.

“Not good,” Beth stated quietly. She found it difficult to focus on Daryl while he was so exposed to her.

“Well, I see you’ve got my vest. What’d you do with my clothes?”

“Uh, they’re dryin’ off downstairs. Mine are there, too. I just thought it’d be nice to wash ‘em off a little.” Beth was still distracted, but not because of the fact that he was topless. She had her eyes focused on the scar on a spot right between his chest and right shoulder. It was gaping, so prominent.

Beth diverted her attention away from Daryl and went upstairs to the master bedroom. The fireplace was lit. Daryl must have done this before he came downstairs. She was still cold from being outside. Sitting in front of the fire chased the cold shivers away.

Outside the window, the snowfall was growing stronger and harder. Looked like a blizzard was coming in. And to think, she was out there while it was happening. Had she stayed out there any longer, she may not have been able to find her way back to the house less than ten yards away.

If this snowstorm occurred in the old world, school and the state would’ve shut down for over a week until the snow melted. It would make the news. Hell, if an icicle was hanging from a building, it would make the news.

It was kind of amazing, all the memories she conjured up just from the presence of snow outside. She missed the menial things in life. It was better not worrying, better not fearing death the very next day.

What the hell? Death is always around the corner. In the old world, this was true. It was just that the old world was so safe that death seemed foreign except for elderly people…like Beth’s father. Now, with the dead everywhere, death was a much closer companion. But it was always a painful truth.

Beth wondered if this was what people who lived in what was once called the Third World endured. No. It had to be worse. Worse than anything. This is a step down even from the war-torn, gang conquered Third World nations. Places like Mexico and Latin America, where drug-related crimes killed millions of people every year. It was a perpetual war.

This was a perpetual war. A perpetual war against the dead and the living who died while their hearts were still beating. What was the purpose of all of this? Why would God do this? What was his goal?

Beth, mesmerized by the erratic motions of the fire, drifted into a trance. A trance where she retreated from reality. Almost like she was sleeping, dreaming, while she was still awake. Not a daydream, something more powerful. Almost like she was hallucinating a memory.

* * *

 She locked the door behind her. She was determined to do this. The creature in the mirror was already lifeless, barren, devoid of any signs of vitality. There was nothing to do but go through with what she wanted.

Beth was grateful to Andrea, letting her make her own choice. But that was odd…why would she do that? Why didn’t she seem so vehemently against her wish to end her own life? Why did she say what she said about making room for pain?

It didn’t matter anymore. It wouldn’t in a few minutes.

The natural instinct to survive kicked into full gear, fighting to keep her from doing what she was about to do. A voice in her head calling her name, like a conscience trying to tell her not to do this. She sobbed, loudly, tears falling from her face.

The voice wasn’t in her head. It was Maggie. She was in the adjacent bedroom. Beth pushed the instincts away and shattered the mirror.

“Beth? Beth?!” Maggie’s voice was punctuated with the sound of frantic knocking. Beth could hear Maggie breathing, desperately trying to open the locked door. She heard Lori say something as well. The key was inside the bathroom, they weren’t going to get in.

Beth picked up a large sharp shard from the sink. She held the shard and placed it against her wrist. She was about to do this…and it terrified her. It horrified her. But there was nothing left, she had to do this now, or she’d suffer a worse fate.

She slashed her arm as fast as she could, sending clouds of red down her skin. The pain…it was indescribable. It was like a nuclear bomb went off inside of her. The horrendous pain was magnified. It was like the shard was cutting every cell in her body apart.

Beth immediately regretted what she did. She broke down completely. The tears came on their own. The shard dropped from her hand, and she held her cut, desperate, hopeful that she didn’t cut too deep.

This wasn’t what she wanted. It wasn’t. She convinced herself that it was, but now…now Beth knew…had an inkling of what death is like. Not peaceful…not painless.

“Don’t do this, Beth. Don’t do this. Open the door, please.” Maggie’s voice…it was stoic. But Beth knew better. She could hear the pain in her voice, the terror. She already lost Annette and Shawn, and the neighbors and friends.

“Beth honey, please open the door. I’m not mad. I’m not mad, Bethy.”

Seconds later, and Lori jimmied the door open. She turned to face them, ashamed and hateful of herself for what she tried to do.

“I’m sorry.”

Maggie immediately embraced her baby sister. She held the broken and fragile Beth in her arms. Maggie finally dropped the stoic front and let herself cry for Beth as Maggie took Beth to their father to get her help.

* * *

 Beth awoke from the trance, tracing the healed scar from her arm. She uttered the first words that came into her mind.

“I wish I cut deeper.”

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice Daryl sitting right next to her, glaring at her in utter horror at what she just said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl claws for everything to bring Beth back from her dangerous mindset.

Daryl glared at Beth, completely speechless. Beth did not just say that. She couldn’t. Not after everything that she made it through. Not after all this. He sat motionlessly, staring at Beth, who remained woefully unaware of Daryl’s presence until after she happened to glance at him.

He immediately grabbed her hand, and he pulled her into him, holding her close. He wasn’t going to lose Beth, not to anything, especially not her own mind. He wasn’t going to. He lost Merle…the farm…Rick…Sophia…Carol. He wasn’t losing Beth. Not in this or in any future lifetime.

“You ain’t no fuckin’ weakling.” Daryl stroked through light blonde hair. “You already forgot that you took care of me for weeks?”

“That was luck,” Beth muttered against him. “Just plain fucking luck.”

“You can tear walkers apart like they’re made of paper. You know how to tell the difference between walkers, humans, and a couple of animals. You can use my clunky-ass crossbow. You did all of that. You taught yourself that. And don’t you ever fuckin’ forget it.”

Daryl’s words echoed in Beth’s mind. They reverberated and bounced back in forth in her head, reassuring her. The voice telling her that she was strong and, she became strong because of her changed. It wasn’t Daryl’s voice but her own. She told herself what Daryl reassured her.

_I’m alive because of me._

_I’m alive because of me._

She told herself that. She still felt like the weakling who couldn’t even die the way she wanted because she was too much of a coward to handle the pain. But all she had to do was keep on telling herself that she was alive because of her. Keep on saying it until it became the truth, until she finally believed it.

She felt alive once more as she kept telling herself this mantra. A mantra of strength and self-power, a mantra that told her the truth of who she was. Beth became strong on her own, not because of Daryl, but because she chose to be. Daryl just made it easier to choose to be strong. Not an easy choice to make, because she didn’t even know that she was making the choice to be broken and weak.

It was so easy to be broken, to let the world trample her. But no longer. Even if it felt like otherwise, like she was letting the world break her, she decided that she wouldn’t be broken anymore. She would be strong. She would not just lie down and let the world take her away.

Beth relaxed against Daryl’s chest, relaxing into the bare skin exposed between the unbuttoned buttons on his shirt. She hadn’t felt this part of him before. It was odd, on multiple levels as she never felt the body of anyone else like this. Never touched them in any way.

Her mind distracted her from what just happened thirty seconds ago, focusing on the new sensation of being in intimate contact with Daryl. She moved her head until she could feel and hear his heartbeat. The natural rhythm of his heart soothed her, made her feel comfortable.

Her own heart changed its beat, matching Daryl’s. He cuddled her to him, refusing to let her go. He quietly swore to himself that he won’t ever let her go. He was going to protect her, just like she protected him. He wasn’t helpless anymore.

Daryl was still taken aback by the fact that even after all of this, Beth still fell back into the idea of letting herself die, or directly ending her life. He had considered it numerous times before, especially considering how he was literally worth nothing to anyone all his life. But even this girl, who found the strength, still fell back into that.

Perhaps it was truly hard to think about how much you really changed. Daryl certainly still saw himself as useless and worthless to others. Apparently, Beth still saw herself as being a drag and a weakling.

Both of them had changed in similar profound ways, becoming stronger people…yet they were as different as could be.

A sixteen-year-old country farm uptown girl with almost no excessive pain that many others hadn’t already suffered. Worried about what clothes went together, getting mud on her favorite clothes, and going to and coming home from school.

A thirty-eight-year-old Georgian drifter raised by an alcoholic father and a mother who died when he was a little boy. Worried about living day-to-day, about whether his brother would survive to the next day, or if he himself would make it to the next day.

Two opposites of the spectrum of people. And yet, here they were, in the most intimate way. For Daryl, this was the most meaningful, and essentially his first intimate moment with anybody, Merle notwithstanding.

Beth relaxed and became calm in his arms. The abnormal, borderline unnatural, snowstorm blowing by outside intensified with each passing second, like it wanted to destroy the house and make the tender warm moment chaotic again, wreck it and tear it apart into absolutely nothing.

But the house was their shield, the barrier keeping them safe. Keeping this precious moment safe. Life was always that way, a long string of precious moments. Daryl didn’t have many of them, but here was one of the moments he’d value for the rest of his life.

Same for Beth. So many good moments in her life with her family. Her brother, her mother, Maggie, her daddy, Patricia, Otis, and Jimmy. All of them a part of who Beth was, and would always be in her memories. She hoped that her father and sister would not remain just precious memories.

Daryl lifted Beth off the ground, carrying her to the bed. He sets her down under the covers and turns to leave, to allow her to sleep alone and in her own comfort for once. There wasn’t much of a need to share a bed anymore, since the mansion was very good at warming itself up quite nicely.

Beth smiled at him longingly, her blue eyes shimmering like ocean water. Daryl froze in the doorway, looking back at her curiously. He walked back to her slowly, allowing her time to change her mind if she so wished. His steps were light and quiet, not surprising since he was a hunter.

He crawled under the covers next to her, pushing the warm blanket off of him, as he didn’t like its texture so much. Beth cuddled into him, tracing her bare hand across the skin on his stomach. She traced his skin lightly up to his chest. A part of her wanted to touch the scar on his collarbone, but she pretended to ignore it.

Daryl noticed her interest in the scar. He was grateful that she didn’t pry about it. He was grateful that in the rather short span of one month, she knew him well enough to know what he didn’t like. They always say that living with someone is the best way to get to know them. That proved true.

What did Daryl learn about Beth? He saw a cute, shy girl with a talent for singing and a serious mental block against her true strength as herself. A sheltered and caring girl, idealistic until recently. Despite having a boyfriend until two weeks ago, she still seemed inexperienced and modest/prudish about her body, not letting Daryl see too much of her.

What did Beth learn about Daryl? She found a geode. Someone with a hard and rough exterior, something that was far less thick and strong and resistant than meets the eye. Someone with a long history behind him, a history of pain that manifested in him being an asshole. But inside, he was beautiful and a good person. And even more beautiful once you know what to look for.

Daryl and Beth fell asleep together, for the umpteenth time, but this time being different. Something else between them, something more magnetic. A gravity between them, pulling them together and keeping them there.

* * *

The roar of the snowstorm outside jolted Beth awake. Daryl—light and easily-alarmed sleeper—shot awake just the same. It was a good thing, too. The fireplace in the room was starting to die down a bit.

“I’ll be right back.” Daryl stood up from the bed, groggy and clearly unhappy.

“You should never say that. Tempting fate’s a good way to get killed in a horror movie.”

Beth pulled herself upright. The still-working clock in the room said it was two in the morning. Time was almost irrelevant now. Why keep a measure of the moment of the day if there wasn’t any hurry? The only need to hurry would either be to beat the sunrise or the sunset.

Beth stretched and popped the joints in her arms, running her fingers through her hair. She felt so much better than before she slept. It was like what happened before was God’s way of forcing the negative emotions, the loathing and underestimation out of her by forcing her to feel and acknowledge it and subsequently deal with it.

She quietly thanked the Lord for doing that for her, and for at least bringing her to Daryl. He returned with some fresh wood, tossing them onto the red embers, making the fire roar back to life and illuminating the room, filling it with a comforting warmth. The storm outside was intense, maybe at its worst.

It was a torrent. Beth approached the window. From what little she could see into the darkness, the storm was blowing everything around, like a twister across the whole of Georgia. She hadn’t seen snow before. Having never left Georgia, or going up to a mountain, snow was something she always heard and read about, or seen pictures of it on the internet.

This was her first exposure to snow.

“I wonder how long the state would’ve shut down after this storm,” she muttered.

“Probably a week, and then some.” Daryl was sitting on the bed behind Beth. She watched him in the reflection of the window. The firelight at this angle illuminated half of his face and made him look mysterious, almost ominous. His shirt was still open, and the scar on his chest was still visible.

Seeing the scar again made her remember her old life. Something about her father. “You know, my daddy has scars too.”

Daryl froze.

“They’re—they were faded. But they were there.”

He stared at her. She realized that he was waiting for an explanation. Men like Hershel normally don’t have scars, at least the kind that Beth was implying.

“My granddaddy was a loveless drunk who drove him away from home when he was fifteen. Daddy didn’t come back until the old man died with a nonexistent liver. Never regretted missin’ his funeral. Never would give him that satisfaction.”

“Well…shit.” That was the only thing the stunned man next to Beth could say. “Ain’t never thought a man like him could go through that.”

“Anyone can go through anything. It ain’t like the world ever played favorites with who to traumatize.” Beth joined Daryl on the bed, leaning into him.

The southerner looked at the ingenue leaning against him, the shiny blonde hair shining in the roaring fire. He pushed her off his shoulder gently and knelt in front of her with his back to her. He took in a breath and peeled off the shirt.

Beth almost cried right there. She always knew, at least suspected that something happened to him in his youth. She never imagined it was of this magnitude. Gaping scars crossing the skin on his back. Like someone took a whip across his back and left him to die. These scars…they were obviously from a belt, and maybe even the metal clip of the belt.

On impulse, she touched one of them. He immediately recoiled back from her. Beth’s hand did the same. He turned to face her, silently nodding. She tentatively touched him again, and he once again flinched as her fingers traced the jagged lines. He shivered under her hands, his skin turning bumpy and tense.

Beth wanted to say that she was sorry. At first, she thought that he’d heard it a thousand times, but then remembered that Daryl wasn’t exactly the most forthcoming person.

She brought her other hand to his back. She wrapped her arms around him from behind, snuggling him to her. So many other times, they had been in this very position. The main differences being that he always had a shirt covering him and it was never this intimate, never this…warm.

“You gon’ say somethin’?”

“What do you want me to say?” Beth said that so softly, so tenderly. Daryl shrugged his shoulders. He pulled her arms off him and stood up. He sat on a chair in the room.

“I ain’t never let nobody see that before. Even Merle.” He ran his fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp. He bit at his nail, the next best thing since Beth didn’t let him smoke. She hated the smell of it on him.

Beth nervously walked over to him. Daryl’s shaded eyes looked up at her. He stood up and looked down to her, their faces only inches apart. Beth closed the distance between them, still nervous and anxious beyond words.

Her heart was beating faster than it ever had. Walkers, fire, running for her life, nothing ever made her heart race as much as it was right now. It was so strong that she was sure that Daryl could hear her blood racing through her veins. It only became more powerful when Daryl touched her face.

The distance between them closed until there was no distance at all. Her lips and his touched, sending even more shockwaves through her body. Daryl could feel just how much this was affecting her, feeling her pulse through the soft skin of her neck. That and her very shaky breathing between tongue-dueling kisses.

Daryl lifted Beth into the air, pulling her with him onto the bed, laying her on her back and crawling over her. The fire to the side of the bed illuminated half of Beth’s fearful face. Daryl pulled back, disgusted with what he nearly just did. “Fuck…sorry.”

“It’s okay. I like it,” Beth said, pulling him back to her. “Keep going.”

“You sure.”

She nodded and took her shirt off to confirm it. She wanted this. Wanted him. She traced her soft fingers across the bare skin of his back, across the landscape of horrific scars. As they locked lips again, they discovered a small problem: Beth’s hair.

It was getting between them, into their mouths. The pair shared a laugh and chuckle over the problem. Daryl got around it by pulling Beth’s hair together and spreading it out over the messy blanket beneath them.

“I hope that does the trick,” Beth muttered.

She leaned off the bed to undo her bra, letting him see her petite breasts. Daryl didn’t touch her, with his hands anyway. He lowered himself onto her until his muscular chest was touching her breasts. His mouth went straight to her neck, aggressively sucking and nibbling.

A moan instinctively escaped from Beth’s mouth. Daryl knew how to straddle the line between pain and pleasure, sucking her hard enough not to hurt her but more than enough to make it incredibly intense.

Beth reached down between them to get to her pants. She couldn’t get her hands under Daryl’s body. He felt what she tried to do and pulled back to let her shed everything below her waist. He did the same, just more slowly, allowing her to change her mind if she so wanted.

She didn’t. She pulled off the last bit of her clothes, leaving her bare before him. Her underwear was wet from how much she wanted him inside of her. For an instant, Daryl stood at the end of the bed, his pants open, hesitant and suddenly apprehensive. Beth never considered what _he_ might want. “Daryl. We don’t have to if you don’t—”

He dropped his pants and his boxers in one fell swoop, letting her see him. This marked the first time she ever saw a man completely naked. Her father? She never saw him completely naked before, nor would she ever have wanted to.

The first time she’d seen a man’s dick in real life. Not in health class pictures, but one in the flesh…wow…bad comparison. Beth shivered while Daryl crawled over her, capturing her lips in another searing kiss. He traced his callused and rough hands down her bare skin.

Beth reached down to his dick, having to navigate her way past his thick hair down there that initially made her slightly squeamish. She grabbed it, feeling slightly intimidated by his size. She had nothing by which to compare it, but she still thought it was big.

“This is your first time?” Daryl asked.

Beth nodded. “I don’t need you to go easy on me. Be as hard as you want.”

He waited a few moments, tongue-kissing and fondling her body before he slid inside of her. He pushed in, quickly and forcefully, not wanting to draw out the moment that Beth had partially feared.

But it wasn’t anything like the horror stories, or the romantic ones. There was no excruciating pain, nothing felt like it was tearing. She only felt…pressure. A lot of it inside her. There was a slight…burning feeling inside her. But nothing like the pain in the old-wives horror stories.

This wasn’t ideal or bad…it was real. Good and real.

He rested inside of her, staying still and savoring this moment. It was the first time he’d slept with a girl in years, and unlike those other times, he was truly enjoying this.

Her hands moved up and down his back, travelling between the base of his neck and the curve of his spine. She traced the muscles in his back and shoulders. The feel of him inside of her, the slight burn that went along with it, was like a shot of a drug.

He perched himself on his elbows and kept his mouth at her neck, kissing, sucking, and nibbling all the time. “How does it feel?”

“Amazing…”

“I’m gon’ move.”

Beth partly wished he told her just how hard he was going to move. He didn’t hold back, and he went at her with full force. A push into her, a strong and firm and unhesitant. Pulling back and pushing back inside, over and over. He moves back to her mouth, pushing her tongue into her mouth in sync with his cock inside her cunt.

“Harder…” Beth requested.

Her head dropped back against the bed as he did exactly what she wanted. He moved faster and harder, just as she wanted. Virgin she might be, but she quickly learned how much she liked having it rough. She learned much about herself, her preferences, and her body.

Her hands tangled into his short hair, tugging at the small strands. His hands found her hair, tugging softly and forcing her to open her neck even more for him. He pressed even harder, moved even faster.

They both could feel how close they were. They felt each other pulsing, and he grew even bigger and harder inside her. He snarled and growled like a predator against Beth’s throat. His rhythm wasn’t even, and they had to adjust themselves multiple times as the bed sheets slid around below them. Eventually, Daryl just got tired of them and pulled them out from below Beth’s back.

After that, all semblances of human gentleness went out the window and into the blizzard outside. It was a race to the finish line, both of them ready and on the brink of going over. His cock pulsed and jerked inside of her, just as her cunt spasmed and squeezed him. He spilled into her, and she shattered around him at the same moment.

Daryl pressed all of his weight on top of Beth. She caressed his back, softly, reveling in the sensation of having him still inside her, still hard and still pulsing. Their heart beats slowed down gracefully, their breathing following suit. Daryl pushed himself off of Beth’s body, sweat dripping from his short hair and skin onto the equally sweaty Beth.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys didn't really think that I was gonna force you to endure a survival horror show AND an angsty love story, did you?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three weeks after a night of shared passion, Beth and Daryl play a little game.

The grey light came into the room through the clean window. It shined onto Daryl who was sleeping alone in the master bedroom. The bright light shining on his eyes forced him awake. He groggily sat up, rubbing his face. He looked around for Beth.

He slipped on some plaid sweatpants and headed downstairs. Beth wasn’t down there, either. The pantry door was open. Three weeks without a food run. Even rationing the food to wait out until the roads became passable, the supply was quickly beginning to drain. They had a few days’ worth of food at most before they needed to get a move on.

A few days. By then, the roads might just be passable. Until then, they could only hunker down and wait out for the snow to slowly thaw. This would have qualified for a natural disaster in the old world, save that there would be resources to clear the roads of the snow piles in a few days.

“Beth?”

“Down here.”

He followed her voice to the basement, where she was digging around the junk down there. “What are you doin’, girl?”

“I’m looking for a board game, or something to play. I’m a little bit board sitting around lookin’ at the melting snow all day.” She emerged from the pile with a deck of suit cards. “And I found what I was looking for.”

“What do you wanna play? Speed? Blackjack? 21?”

 “Actually, it’s this game that I played back when I was in school. This girl I knew taught me this game. I think she made it up.”

“How’s it work?” Daryl asked. He followed her up the stairs back to the dining room.

“Okay, so… The goal is to get the other person’s deck. We split the deck, and we each put down one card. Suit doesn’t make a difference. If I drop a 2-10, you just drop your top card. If I drop a jack, you put down one card, and if it isn’t a jack, queen, king, or ace, you take the deck.”

“And if you drop a queen, I put down two, king three, ace four?” Daryl concluded.

“Yeah, exactly. And the same goes the other way around.”

“What’re we gonna play with? Legos?” As soon as he finished, he realized that there was something they could use as a gambling card. “You commando?”

Beth shook her head. “Why?”

“Just go put a coat on. I’ll be right back.” Daryl trotted up the stairs. He slipped a pair of boxers underneath his plaid pants, and the slipped on his shirt and angel-wing vest and went back downstairs. Beth followed his advice, wearing a thick coat when he got back downstairs. Her smile told him that she figured out where this was going. A nice stripping game, the loser taking off their clothes.

He flopped down in the seat across from her, smile across his face. The same kind of smile across her face. One of anticipation, and expectation of a very good time after this game. They hadn’t done anything this exciting. All they’d done at this point was him on top, sometimes behind her or on her front.

He wasn’t keen on having her be the one on top. In fact, he was never the “girl on top” kind of guy. Barely having any control of his life, the bedroom was one of few places he felt some control. He controlled the pace, the rhythm, the speed, the force, all of it. It was the only sense of control he never had in other parts of his life.

Ironically, he never cared for sex all that much. Because it was always so meaningless. The other women were all just basically sex toys on legs with a heartbeat that his brother got for him. Maybe he got undressed partially, but almost never all the way. He just thrusted his cock into their cunts from behind them and moved with no real sense of pleasure. Just going through the motions until he came in a rubber.

Beth was the first time that sex meant something to him. She was different. He didn’t really know, aside from personality, which most of those few women were quite nice in their own right. There was just something different about this. It was like a magic, a language that only his heart and soul could understand.

Honestly, it was nice to feel comfortable and safe enough to make a game of sex, worry about making sure the bedroom stayed a fun place for them both. Or even just the fact that Daryl could ponder about what sex meant to him. It meant that they had it quite good. They also knew that it could change at any moment. It did back at the Greene family farm.

Beth started the game. She flipped her card. It was the two of hearts. Daryl’s turn: the three of spades.

Beth: the three of clubs.

Daryl: the ten of hearts.

Beth: the two of diamonds.

Daryl: the five of spades.

Beth: the queen of hearts. “Okay, so…now, you place three cards down. If none of them are the power cards, I take the stack and mix it with mine.”

Daryl places three cards, and none of them were the power cards. Beth claimed the stack and placed it into hers. They went at it again. The stack kept piling higher and higher and higher. The stack piled up until Daryl dropped the ace of hearts.

Beth dropped her four cards and dropped no power cards. Daryl claimed the stack with a smug smile.

“Don’t get cocky,” Beth warned. “This game ain’t even close to being over.”

His smile didn’t fade. In fact, Beth’s warning emboldened him a little bit. He chuckled, daring her to bring it on. And Beth certainly did bring it on with him. One by one, the cards were stacked. And they kept on being stacked and the pile grew and grew.

And then Beth dropped the ace of spades. Daryl put down his four cards, with his fourth being a power card, the king of diamonds. Beth didn’t have a chance to put down her cards, because the first card she dropped was the jack of hearts, and the next card that Daryl put down her wasn’t one of the power cards.

As a result, Beth gained several power cards, and Daryl quickly realized that she might have the luck to back up her warning. He didn’t let that diminish his confidence one bit. Daryl kept the pace up with them.

“You said you played this with a friend?” Daryl asked.

“Yeah. It was for our European History class.” Beth’s eyes wandered to the window, watching the outside, remembering those days. “We were studying England under Queen Victoria, and we were told to spend a day playing cards. A friend of mine came over and we played random card games, and ones we just invented.”

“And this is one you just invented?” That question didn’t really need an answer. Beth’s smile made it clear what the answer was.

This round went in one direction after she claimed the last stack. One card after another, one stack after another until Daryl was all out of cards. Daryl promptly removed his jacket.

One by one, the rounds continued. They were unpredictable, with things swinging to one side and then another, sometimes pulsating back and forth like a game of tug-of-war. Sometimes, it looked like Beth was sure to win, and then she would suddenly start losing her cards. Ditto for Daryl.

The next round? Beth lost the game and her jacket.

Daryl lost his main shirt. Then his undershirt.

Beth lost her shirt and her pants just the same.

Daryl lost his pants.

The next round went to Beth, leaving Daryl completely naked on the other side of the table. Beth smiled at him proud that she won over him.

“This game is all sorts of bullshit,” Daryl said.

“Awww, you can’t handle that you lost.”

“What are you talkin’ about? I didn’t.” He stood up from his chair and waltzed right over to Beth, lifting her into his arms and quickly kissing her. “You got me naked, and I almost got you naked. I call that a win.”

Daryl didn’t bother with walking up the stairs, instead opting to drop himself and her onto the couch close by. He nearly crushed her with his sheer weight. He reached behind her to unclasp her bra. She pulled down her own underwear off her legs.

Sloppy kiss followed sloppy kiss, hands traveling around each other’s bare sweaty skin. Her hands traced the scars she touched once before, though still knew nothing about, nor did she want to know the horrid details. She knew the story of one scar, a roughly circular one on the side of his abdomen when he was impaled on his own arrow searching for Sophia.

“I love you,” Beth whispered into his ear.

“I love you, too.”

Daryl went further and further down Beth’s skin, kissing and nibbling at her skin until he got past the mound of blonde hair right down to where he wanted. Beth was a bit nervous, not knowing what exactly to expect from this. Turns out, she enjoyed the feeling of his mouth and tongue against her wet pussy as much as having his fingers inside her. Obviously, only one thing was better than this.

She was so caught up in how it felt to have him doing this to her that she didn’t actually know what he was doing. She couldn’t feel exactly what he was doing. She felt the jumps, all the surges of this euphoric skyrocketing sensation with every flick of his tongue across her clit.

Beth moaned and groaned, her pleasure reaching an apogee. He didn’t stop, keeping going and kept going, bringing her to the brink of her pleasure. Blood rushed from all over her body, flushing her skin, especially in her face.

He stopped just before she could fall off the precipice. If she was going to fall, she was going to do so on his terms. He wasn’t ready to let her fall off the edge just yet. He crawled back up her body, kissing up her body until he reached her nipples where he stopped and sucked them gently.

The blood pumped around her body like ocean currents, with such power and force that it was like she was ready to explode. She opened her mouth, letting herself scream and moan loudly, knowing that there was nothing around them to hear the screams, only Daryl.

Hearing her scream gave Daryl that feeling of being a proud alpha male. That archetypical feeling that a “real” man is said to have when he has everything he could want. He used to frown upon that idea, but now he got it. He understood it. It felt good to have a woman willing and moaning and groaning beneath him. Not to dominate and conquer her, but to have a good time with her, and give it to her just the same.

He made his way back to her mouth, jamming his tongue down her mouth, letting her do the same to him. He reached down to touch her, soaking his fingers, being careful not to hit her most sensitive spot.

“Why are you makin’ me wait?”

He pulled his fingers out of her to moisten himself, make it easier. “I ain’t.” As he said, he entered her body with aggression and force. Another strong moan forced itself from Beth’s mouth. Daryl shut her up, absorbing her moans and screams into his mouth.

He set a fast and aggressive pace, not giving her an inch. She kept up with him, locking her hips around him and moving in time with his motions. Three weeks of having no company except each other, doing this was a good way to pass the time, and over those weeks they’d learned a lot about each other and what they liked.

Her hands clenched against his skin, scratching him, marking him. Her fingertips traced the scars crisscrossing his back, and her own scar trailed across his back too. The higher his movements made her, the more she lost her own control, scratching and pinching his skin.

Her mouth went straight to his collarbone, dragging her tongue across the rough skin, travelling to his neck. His movements increased in speed and intensity as she reached his neck. She sucked on his neck as he brought her to the edge of it all, to the shattering explosion of euphoric pleasure. He swiftly followed her to the pleasure of the oblivion.

He stayed inside of her, movements slowing down, her hands moving across his back slowly. Their breathing slowed down as his thrusts softened and slowed. In a matter of moments, he stopped on top of her, still inside of her, kissing her softly, enjoying the comforting comedown.

Daryl rolled off Beth onto the floor.

“You are so not stayin’ down there,” Beth demanded. She scooted down the couch and reached down to Daryl’s arm, pulling him up to the couch.

“Oh my God, girl…You’re gonna kill me,” Daryl said extremely dramatically.

“All I want is for you not to stay on the floor, Mr. Dramatic.” Beth pulled him up off the floor. Before he sat down on the couch, he got up and pulled his plaid pants back on. Beth playfully pulled a blanket over her body. He had already seen everything there is to see on her, but she still liked to be playfully hard-to-get at times. That, and she and Daryl found it funny to pretend that they were in a film, where couples after sex lie in bed/on the couch together with a blanket covering all the good stuff.

“Tomorrow, I’m heading out on a run. Get more food.”

“Well…I had fun, too. Thanks for asking,” Beth said dryly.

“I’m serious. That fuckin’ snowstorm made it impossible to move around. But it’s thawed enough. I can get out and get some more food and bolts. Mine are weak and worn.”

“You mean ‘we’.”

“Nope. I mean me,” Daryl said. “One of us has gotta stay here, make sure this place stays intact and nobody come here.”

“And you’re just volunteering me?”

He prepared for an entire argument about how she wanted to do something more than just sit around, staying behind helplessly. He was surprised to hear her say, “It’s fine. You just better come back to me safely.”

“I…was expecting more resistance from you.”

“For once, the man is right from the start,” Beth muttered. “You think you’ll find anyone out there?”

Daryl didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if she meant that as a vague way of asking if they’ll find her family, or if she meant if they’d find anyone…good or bad. He didn’t know if he wanted to find anyone else. Maybe it would be better if it was just the two of them.

* * *

Daryl stood next to his bike, getting ready for the trek out. He took a good look at the map of the area, resting it against the bike. He was standing in sloshy snow that was liquifying all over the place. Beth came outside, carrying Daryl’s bag.

“There’s enough water in here for a few hours. A good amount of food, too.” She looked around the area and couldn’t shake that trembling sensation of dread. Dread that something could happen out there to him. Or that something could happen here while he was gone. Who knew what could happen? “Be careful.”

“You know I always am.”

Beth kissed him goodbye. Watching him leave the safety behind the wrought iron gate after they had been so secure for so long was agonizing. If this were the modern world, the pain would only be mild, because the modern world, there was little question that someone would return. Someone not coming back happened but was the exception.

Now…there was no telling. She had to convince herself that he’d be fine, because Daryl was just that good. But…after the farm, there was this realization about how delicate life was in this world. Anything could come and take away. Nobody was safe, not even the seemingly unbeatable Daryl Dixon.

But…he was out there, and she was in here. There was nothing she could do for him here. All she could do was wait out the time until he came back. Time…sometimes there was too much of it. Other times not enough. There was never enough time to spend with loved ones, but there was too much time without them.

She headed back inside and went to the bathroom upstairs. She had yet to clean up after she screwed around with Daryl a few times. She dipped into the warm bath water and soaked into it, lowering herself entirely into the water after taking a deep breath, and letting herself relax and focus on her individual thoughts.

Beth took a breath and dipped herself entirely into the water. This was always a comfort. She always liked the water, swimming. Water is where she felt empowered. Add that to her singing voice, people used to refer to her as a mermaid when she was a little girl. Daryl couldn’t hold back his laughter when she told him that she used to be called a mermaid.

Or maybe a siren was more accurate. Sirens with their alluring voices yet deadly nature. Except that Beth was far from a deadly girl. Naught but a cute farmer’s girl all her life. But maybe this world

For three weeks, she had Daryl there. Every day, just another mundane activity. Stuck in the house with him, and nobody else around to do anything with. And that was great, because there was no one to interrupt them.

That very thing made her realize that doing this in the old world would have been legal, as she was of age, but she would have probably spent the vast majority of their relationship waiting for the next time they could meet up. So much time spent waiting for those precious moments. So much waiting, but never enough time.

Perhaps a world like this would not have been so bad, were it not for all the walkers destroying and killing everything in their path. So much less time spent waiting and committing to ultimately meaningless tasks and goals, and more time spent with what matters: the people you love.

Beth emerged from the water, her thoughts put into a cohesive and comprehensible structure. It made her feel better, realizing that if anyone stood a chance out in this cold world, it was Daryl, and that when he’d come back, they’d have some time together. Hopefully.

In the meantime, she went downstairs, where she found herself a composition notebook, completely blank. There were several pens nearby. On an impulse, she picked up a pen and just started writing things down. Nothing in particular, just everything that was going through her mind.

_Hey, it’s Beth Greene. I’m still alive through all of this. Somehow I found the strength to keep going, to make it. Sometimes, Daryl looks at me, and I can’t help but think that he still sees another dead girl. I doubt it, but there’s still that nagging feeling._

_How ~~many days~~ long has it been since this all started? Four months? Five months? I don’t know. I can’t keep track of anything anymore. All I can think of is going from one day to the next. The dead are everywhere, but the cold weather is slowing them down, enough that we can move around safely without worry. _

_We’re almost out of food. Daryl went out to find some more for us. I don’t like that he’s out there alone. We’re a team, and more than that, we’re…together. We should never be separated. We need to be together. That’s the safest we can be. But, I guess that’s not a realistic thing to imagine._

_This mansion is a lifeboat for us. But that’s all it is. A lifeboat. Good for some time, but if we stay in it for too long, we’ll die. This place won’t last forever. Maybe it’ll last us through the winter. That’s wishful thinking. But maybe it pays off to wish for the best._

_Of all the people from the farm, of all my family and my friends, the one person I can’t stop thinking about is Lori. Did she make it? I hope. That makes me feel horrible that I worry about her, but she’s pregnant. She’s worth two lives. If she didn’t make, two people died with her. I just hope not. If children can’t be born into this world safely, there’s no hope for any of us. But I can’t afford to think like that. All I can do is keep moving forward. Keep going, from one day to the next to the next. That’s the only thing anyone can do now._

Beth stopped, her hand and wrist a bit sore from her pressing so hard. It felt good, almost like a confession booth. Just a way to vent her own emotions, even if it was written instead of verbal. She never realized until writing all of this down that she’d been so concerned with Lori’s welfare.

Maybe…Beth realized that she might have been thinking of herself as well. The possibility that she might be worth more than just her own life, but the life of a child inside of her. No telling. Beth was certain that she wasn’t, but she knew that it’d be an inevitable thing with Daryl. Especially with how careless they are. Beth didn’t complain about it.

But now…came the bigger problem. What will come after this? Daryl might find, food, then what’s the next problem?

There was already a long road ahead. Said road was full of debris. They had to find a way to get through it.

They would get through it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this chapter, the plot threads will begin. There will be still copious amounts of gratuitous smut, what good fanfic doesn’t? But the plot threads from the comics and the series will appear here, though not every single one. There will be some originals and many canon things that occur offscreen. Most of the action occurs around Beth, but sometimes I will display what happens to other characters. This isn’t a TV Series, so I can’t do that easily.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the good stuff will begin. The plots from the comics and the series that everyone, myself included, know and love so well. However, I will be invoking my own distillation and adaptation of events to fit this written medium. Deaths will change, fates will be rearranged.   
> By the way, these journal entries are a bit of a plot device of sorts. Whenever a time jump occurs, they will introduce the chapter and the exposition of some important events. There will also be small patches here and there detailing Beth’s intimate and personal thoughts.   
> Also, the scenes involving Andrea and Michonne are also playing out, pretty much identically to how they were in the show. Therefore, I feel no need to display them, but believe me, I will introduce the threat of the Governor in a dynamic meaningful way.

_It’s been a while since I’ve written in you. The last time was the night I thought I lost a piece of myself. I can’t even keep up with the days anymore. Everything is just flowing by like a river. ~~I almost…Time is so…~~ I can’t even tell what’s happening anymore. Time is just irrelevant now. I used to think from day to day, but now I can’t even think beyond the next few hours. _

_The mansion didn’t last us two weeks after Daryl went on his first run for food. We ran out of everything. The luxury lifeboat had nothing to sustain us anymore. We had to keep moving. That’s why I forgot you._

_Daryl’s hair a little longer and messier. He also smiles a lot more now. He isn’t always in a perpetual scowl. It’s beautiful, even if it’s only for me. We’ve been on the road for months now, stealing whatever moments we can together. Quick little moments in the back of this pick-up truck._

_Over time, we found a lot. Most of what we found was just scraps of food, but there were some good ones. There were some storage sheds where we hid out for a couple of weeks, have some shelter all around us so that we could sleep. We tend to move slowly. We don’t let any walkers we see live. Every dead walker is one less to form a herd. Speaking of which, the map of the county we got two weeks ago has been a lifesaver. We’ve been able to track the vast herds._

_We don’t use bullets anymore. Daryl made me a bow from the wood of the forest. A strong one. So strong that I had to do a primitive workout routine just to get strong enough to use it. It’s the only weapon I’ve used with practice. Firearms…well Daryl gave me some lessons on how to use them, enough that I can use pistols and assault rifles should the time come. I still have that handmade bow, but I also found a powerful competition bow, the kind that comes with a target. Of course, a bow is only useful at a distance. I found myself a huge machete for when things are too close for comfort. I feel more powerful than I’ve ever been. I can go into those woods and not come out for days and be fine. Come out with a belt of squirrels and a few more notches of walker kills under my belt. I’m no longer scared. Never. And it feels amazing, like nothing can stop me. I enjoy the power, knowing that I can fight, and I can win._

_The only thing that scares me is that I might lose Daryl…_

Beth put her journal away and looked out over through the woods. She was dressed in Daryl’s leather angel-wing vest and her hair was pulled into a braid behind her. She was looking for Daryl. He had to stop to take a piss.

In the distance, there were a few walkers coming towards her, roughly thirty yards away. Beth stood on top of the car and drew her bow, taking careful aim. She took three deep breaths, closed her eyes and opened them back up, feeling the wind in her hair. She fired one true shot straight into the walker’s skull. She repeated the same thing for the other. They both broke on impact. Beth smiled slightly at the sight of them falling to the ground, happy with herself.

Daryl emerged from the trees. He saw the two walkers and smiled at Beth to compliment her for it. He had a dead owl in his hands, and he was picking out all the feathers. He climbed up onto the truck and shared the owl with her.

“How are we looking on gas?” he asked.

“If we can run this baby on rust, we’re doing great,” Beth said. “And your bike?”

“Got enough for a good distance. Better make our way to a town, find some gas to get out.”

“Where do you suggest? It’s not like we haven’t picked through half the state already.” The owl tasted disgusting, but it was something. The both of them were running low on their fat reserves. Any longer without good food, they’ll start losing muscle mass, and that _will_ kill them, no doubt about it. “It’s like we’ve been going in circles all over the place for months.”

“Yeah. I was thinkin’ we should head back to Newnan, push through west. Ain’t been through there yet,” Daryl suggested.

Beth quietly nodded. “Any idea about the herds?”

“The ones in the west, I think they’re gonna merge soon. They’ll cut us off.”

“How many?”

“Count about 150 head, but it could be getting bigger by the second.”

“Yeah well, walkers aren’t as much a threat anymore. They’re easy to take down, especially in herds,” she reminded Daryl. Beth smiled again, a small one. It was clear how much she liked the prospect of wiping out a horde of walkers.

“Never thought you’d enjoy killing walkers.”

Beth glanced over to the dead walkers on the road in the distance. “I don’t. I just want them all dead.” Daryl glanced to his watch. It was almost noon. “They took every-fucking-thing from me.”

“I get it.” He kissed her. “Let’s get going.”

Beth drove behind Daryl who rode ahead on the motorcycle. She was driving confidently, like she had been all her life. It helped that there were no other cars on the road to get in her way. She kind of liked it. She had driven before, but never this much for such long periods of time.

They kept on driving for what felt like forever. Beth kept watching as the tank needle indicator slowly lowered and lowered. Along the main road was a single right turn that Beth happened to look down for a brief instant. A brief instant was all she needed.

She stopped the truck, honking its horn, signaling Daryl to stop too. He got off his bike as she got out of the car. “What is it?” She walked back to the turn and got a better look at the sign.

“Look.”

_HITCHHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPING INMATES_

“That’s gotta mean there’s a prison nearby, right?”

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. “Only one way to find out.”

* * *

Following the road, sure enough, they came upon the opening gates of a large prison. West Georgia Correctional Facility to be exact. The fences were whole and intact and strong. The wire on top was untouched. The building looked completely unmarked from the outside. The only problem was that the courtyard was full of walkers.

“That’s a damn shame.”

Beth glared at Daryl. “You’re not seriously thinkin’ of giving up on this, are you?”

Daryl gestured towards the field full of walkers. “Girl, look at this. All those walkers, what do you think we can do against them?”

“We fought more than this before, we can do it again, I believe it. Daryl, look at this place. It’s secure. This place could be our best chance, we could stay here.”

He looked out at the prison. He knew that Beth had a point. This place was the best they’d seen in a long time. He looked through the fence, seeing the number of walkers. Maybe a couple dozen of them, all dressed as inmates and all rotted like they’d been dead since the start. Beth was beyond right in every aspect. This was not only their best chance; this was an obtainable chance. They could do this. They could take this place. But they would have to do it one step at a time.

There was an open gate in the distance that they’d have to shut, unless they wanted more walkers to come through into the yard, making their goal all the more difficult.

“Alright. Alright. We can swing this,” Daryl said. “Okay. Beth. Here’s what we’re gonna do. You go over there, pop ‘em through the fence. I’ll do the same over here. Get as many of these fuckers as we can, clear it out. We’ll run through the fence and clip the gate in there shut, keep more from filling the yard.”

Beth smiled. Not out of a sort of glee for fighting walkers, but because they could finally have a place that they could call home. Something…somewhere that they could find a life, a meaningful life. Hope. That was what it sounded like. Tantalizing hope.

The pair worked together through the burning sun, each one taking a different wing and killing all the walkers they could, stabbing them through the fence. One by one, the walkers fell to the ground in a pile against the fence. Once the area drained enough, the pair went through the sliding gate, running up the gravel path to the gate. They managed to clip it shut in time before anymore walkers came through.

After that, there was only one order of business remaining: take the rest of the walkers out. Not the hardest thing to do in the world. There were so few remaining that hardly any effort was needed to kill them. A few arrows and they were all dead.

They had done it. They cleared out the field. They had a place to stay where they didn’t have to sleep with one eye open.

“Oh my God! We did it! YES!” Beth screamed. She leapt into Daryl’s arms celebrating that they may have a chance here.

“Come on, girl. Let’s go get our stuff.”

* * *

Beth sat down by the small campfire in the yard wearing Daryl’s poncho, except it was too big on her. She hadn’t felt so secure in a long time, not even back at the mansion. Daryl walked around the fences, making sure they were secure and that no part of it was compromised…except this probably his third or fourth time around the fences.

The overturned bus at the front gate kept them from bringing in their car, but Daryl’s bike was able to fit through. They’d move it out of the way in due time. They definitely won’t leave their weapons in there, though.

_I don’t believe we actually did it. I mean, we cleared this overrun field by ourselves, no bullets, just our blades and our bows and our wits. Awesome. Now we have somewhere we can stay and not worry about what might come out of the woodwork, no need to sleep in shifts. This could be the place where we start over, go from surviving to living. Maybe, I can find some redemption._

 “Hey.” Daryl flopped down next to her. Beth leaned over to him, relaxing into him, and he wrapped his arm around her.

“How does it look?”

“Real good. Most of the walkers are dressed as inmates or security. This place fell early, the supplies could be intact.”

Beth traced her hand up Daryl’s leg, massaging softly. “What do you think we’ll find here?”

“Everything, I think. Cafeteria, infirmary, maybe even an armory,” he said. His voice sounded deep and raspy. Seemed like exhaustion could get to anyone, even the tough guy Daryl Dixon himself. “This place could be a gold mine.”

“Awesome.”

“Yeah, but we gotta deal with all these bodies. Put them all outside and burn them, keep them away from that creek over there,” Daryl said, pointing to the waterway past the fence. “Plus, I don’t like the idea of trying to do anything in walker-rotted soil.”

“Cute. And I don’t think it’d matter,” Beth pointed out. “The walkers…just rot away like any other dead thing. I can only imagine how many of them are already rotting underground. But I get what you’re saying.”

She pulled out a bag of seeds. “Maybe we can even grow some of these here.”

Daryl took it and looked at it for himself. He liked this. He liked the idea of having this with her. After all, farmer’s girl and all, she’d know how to grow these. It all almost sounded too good to be true. “We should get some rest. Gotta tough day tomorrow. We can’t sit on this, we have to move in there. I know you’re tired, I am too.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should celebrate before we go to sleep.” Beth traced her hand higher up his leg. Daryl, tempted as he was, stopped her.

“Let’s save the celebration for when we’re in the prison.”

Defeated, Beth changed the subject, saying the first thing that popped into her head. “How are we gonna keep this place safe just the two of us?”

“By bein’ careful. Just two of us, but we got this whole place. Learn our way around it, learn how to avoid and ambush any fuckers who want to come here and do somethin’.”

“How do we plan to take down those walkers? Just the two of us?”

“We go in there. Back-to-back. With our blades. Can’t use the guns. Don’t want to risk drawing anyone over here, alive or not-so-alive,” he explained.

Beth stopped the conversation by kissing him. She didn’t want to think about the painful tomorrow but of the pleasurable right now. He reciprocated with fervor, kissing her firmly, pulling her to the ground with him. When they broke apart, Daryl held Beth from behind. Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day, but they were going to get through it just like they did everything else: together.

* * *

Beth dragged a rock against her machete, sharpening it slightly for the upcoming task. She kept her quiver on her. This wouldn’t be the first time she would just grab an arrow and stab it straight into a walker’s head.

Daryl knelt next to her. “Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The walkers thankfully weren’t concentrated near the gate, making it easy to get in and get tight against each other. Beth’s trust machete cut down the first walker like a lawnmower through grass. Daryl’s much smaller, though still a considerably large, hunting knife pierced through the skulls like they weren’t even there.

They kept as quiet as possible, signaling each other with their actions and small taps, not wanting to draw any walkers that might be out of sight for the moment. There were already several walkers around them already.

The walkers closed in on them, surrounding them, but the pair held their ground, slicing and wrecking them, decapitating them or destroying their faces. The good thing about so many months having passed was that these walkers were starting to fall victim to advanced decomposition, and their bodies were literally falling apart. A little nick in the right place meant that they’d fall apart completely.

A train of some twenty walkers came from the side of the courtyard. Every single one was on the ground, missing pieces of their skulls in the next minute. Their rotting blood filled the courtyard, nearly overwhelming them with how horrible the smell was.

Daryl and Beth pressed forward through the courtyard, underneath the bridge and the red door leading to somewhere unknown within the prison. Daryl was the first to notice the fenced off area full of walkers. He pressed himself and Beth against the wall. She fell to her knees and peeked around Daryl’s leg to get a look.

Exchanging a few glances, they knew exactly what they needed to do. A couple of walkers dressed in riot gear came out from around a corner in the distance, but then two more came out from the corner right in front of them. Daryl gave Beth the chain links and the clips. He drew his crossbow and attempted to shoot one of the riot gear walkers. It failed, bouncing off the armor like it was nothing.

Beth took her chance, running forward and pushing them out of her way. She ran straight for the gate, successfully closing and chaining it shut before any walkers could get out. She turned her attention to the more immediate problem of the armored walkers. Despite her and Daryl’s efforts, they couldn’t get past the helmets to kill them. And to make matters worse another walker came out, one dressed in a gas mask. However, it quickly became apparent that these walkers’ armor was a double-edged sword. The pair couldn’t kill them, but they couldn’t bite the pair.

One of them grappled Beth, and she fought back against it. That was when she saw the key to killing these walkers. She stabbed it underneath its helmet, straight through its jawline and into its brain.

It fell to the ground, and Daryl was left in surprise. Beth couldn’t help but smile and excitedly say, “See that?”

He quickly followed with what Beth did, stabbing beneath the barrier of the helmets. Beth got the last walker kill, the one with the gas mask. She ripped off the mask to clear a path for her machete, but she ended up pulling off the walker’s entire face along with the mask, much to her immediate revulsion before she finally killed it, nearly severing its skull.

“Gross…” She ran back to Daryl. “We did it.”

“Don’t celebrate too soon,” he told her.

“It looks secure.”

“Not from the looks of those asshats over there.” He pointed out to the chained off courtyard. There weren’t just walkers dressed as inmates, but civilians, too.

“Well…that’s fuckin’ great. The inside of this place could be overrun with walkers from _outside_ the prison…me and my bright ideas.”

“Hey. This is a bright idea. All we gotta do is seal off one of these cell blocks, clear it out. Come on, let’s go.” Beth followed him into the prison’s common area. The area was filthy and disgusting, having been untouched and uncleaned for almost a year now. It wasn’t a comforting sight, but then again, no American prison is.

The real problem was the lack of light. The only light they had coming in was through the sliding door behind the pair and some windows providing light from the outside. The common area was still ominously dark even so. Beth investigated the crow’s nest at the top of the stairs where the warden had committed suicide, his body rotting. She found two sets of key rings.

Daryl investigated the door leading into a dark hallway, finding it locked. Given how ominous it looked behind the door, that might not have been a bad thing. Who knew what was behind this thing? Probably best not to find out right now.

“Hey.” Beth tapped Daryl’s shoulder and handed him a key ring. He went to the other door which led directly to a cell block, specifically Cell Block C. The squeaking of the opening door wasn’t entirely comforting. Made this place sound haunted, given all the silence and the echoing resonance of the noise. The first-floor cells were all open, some of which had dead bodies of executed inmates. By this point, they both had seen so much violence and death outside this prison that this was a _welcome_ sight.

The upper floor had a couple of cells with walkers. Easy to take care of them. They brought their stuff in, their weapons, water, food and other supplies after they cleared the bodies into the courtyard. Finally, they had a good place. They truly did it, they didn’t just step through the door but settled. There was still so much to do, but they took the first steps.

“I’m so exhausted, I don’t even give a shit,” Beth muttered once she could finally sit down on the stairs. “We can clean this shit up later.”

“Yeah, well, I ain’t sleepin’ in no cage.” Daryl walked past her and pulled a mattress out of one of the cells. Beth walked up to the perch before he could relax. He looked at her for just one second before he kissed her.

He did say that they should wait until they really had something to celebrate before doing this. And now it seemed a prime time, like a time to celebrate. The kiss was messy, mixing their sweat and dirt and anything else they had on them at the time. Everything on top of him came off and the same thing for Beth.

He laid down on his back, letting her straddle him, their lips only breaking for them to take breaths. Beth went down Daryl’s body, kissing his individual scars. She lifted herself off him to reach down to pull down his pants. She was already wet and ready for him when she took off her own pants. She slid down on him, softly impaling herself.

This would never become old. She would never be displeased with this, with the feeling of him inside of her. Never. It was like a drug to her. Her own personal drug that could never be replicated, and she never grew tolerance for it. The motions of their hips together, his pressing to her as she set a slow pace, came as naturally as the tides.

“Goin’ a little too slow, girl,” he moaned. He traced his hands up her smooth skin, the skin that was lacking in nutrition and fat, to the point where he could partly feel some of her bones. His own body was at the beginning of its withering from malnutrition, but it made no difference. Their bodies grew and changed together, and there was nothing to be ashamed about with each other.

She didn’t move faster like he wanted. She kept it slow, savoring the moment. She pressed him down into the mattress, wanting to take the sole lead, as she hadn’t done that as of yet.

This was a new thing for Daryl, too. Very much so. A woman never took him as hers like this before. He was always the lead, just staying on top and moving his hips in a clinical manner until he blew his load in a rubber. The absence of rubbers was a gift, it felt so much better for him. Instead of feeling latex, he actually felt her, every bit of friction against her warm pulsing wet cunt.

Beth started moving her hips quicker, so much it was like Daryl was almost struggling to push up against her as she rode him. Not that he was complaining, not by any means. The tension and their excitement and arousal escalated faster and faster until they reached the edge at the same time. Her cunt spasmed and squeezed around him, forcing the come out of him.

“That was too quick,” Daryl said. Beth smiled at him, happy that she was so good that he couldn’t last…at least this time. They were safe, with all walls shielded. They had nothing to endanger them at the moment.

Like they were alive.


	7. Chapter 7

The couple examined some weapons they found in a small cache. Daryl could identify some of them, like some were smoke bombs, and some automatic firearms. They also took some of the armor from the walkers, but it was disgustingly full of disgusting decomposition fluid. The helmets especially. The glove they had was also dripping with the viscous liquid. Beth promptly dropped it to the floor, not having any of it.

“I ain’t wearin’ this shit.”

Beth did the best using some of the inmates’ clothes to clean them out. She didn’t stop until she had used upwards of twenty inmates’ clothes. She still didn’t like that there was no water for her to clean them with, but it would suffice for now until they could hopefully find the showers if they still have running water here.

“I ain’t goin’ in there _without_ this shit,” she said.

“I ain’t judgin’ you.” He helped her to get the armor on. It was a bit big on her, but they did the best they could adjusting it to fit her nicely. This would make it more difficult for the walkers to bite her, but it still was disgusting for her to wear it.

“What if something happens in there?”

“We do what we do best. Fight.”

She smiled. “Let’s go.” Beth took a pair of nine-millimeter handguns with her. Firing her weapons in these walls will probably deafen both of them, but it’s worth the chance if they run into something in there. Especially if there are other humans around. Any inmates in here may not be the most trustworthy individuals to say the least.

The tunnels were basically catacombs, dark and dreary and it was like they were stepping into the depths of hell. If not, then into the tomb of an ancient monster. In this case, the monster was divided into numerous individual pieces called walkers. And the brave adventurers heading into this catacomb could do nothing but avoid the monster, lest it find them and kill them first.

All throughout the passages within these tombs were the bodies that the ravenous walkers had already stripped down, dead bodies that were eaten to the bare bone. All evidence of their presence and their danger. The collective, almost incomprehensible creatures impervious to all damage save for brain damage that had conquered the world, creatures that used to be humans. The hallmarks of a fictional Lovecraft story, but no…they were real. And they were _everywhere_ , even in this island of a sanctuary.

They marked their path with some spray paint, spraying arrows telling them which turns to take. It was bright white and stood out strongly against the backdrop of dirty rot-colored walls. Daryl kept the lead while Beth kept their back protected. Thankfully, they both had flashlights to keep the area at least a little bit lit.

With every turn, they feared encountering a large number of walkers. The absence of sound didn’t help. In fact, it only made things more frightening. Unlike the woods, there would be no natural noise in this prison, no warning that there were walkers too close for animals’ appreciation.

Their fear came to life, rounding a corner straight into a group of walkers, far too many for them to fight.

“Walkers! Go back! Go back!”

Beth led the way back down to the cell block following the arrows. The walker herd was close behind them, relentless in their pursuit. However, another group of walkers blocked their only way back, forcing the pair to run down an unfamiliar hall. Beth kept her wits about her enough to spray a white path down the hall to mark it. It wasn’t clear, but it was something.

They ran down the path of this hall, avoiding turns except for corners. Smart move, as many of said turns had several walkers hiding behind them. They found a couple of heavy metal doors to hide behind, though they were the kind that could just be pushed open, the kind without knobs.

“Kill the lights.”

Beth and Daryl crouched and subjected themselves to darkness, hiding from the walkers as they stumbled around outside the door. They held onto one another, doing their best to keep their breathing from becoming too loud.

They waited a few minutes until after the walker moans faded to leave. As they went back the same route they came, another group of walkers came out from behind them, forcing them to rush back to the cell block before they could get the pair. They successfully made it back to the common area and locked it off, keeping the walkers from coming through. Barely, though.

“Dammit,” Beth interjected.

“Yeah.”

“How much food is there?” Beth asked.

“Enough for a few more days, rationed the right way."

* * *

So, the first attempt to navigate through what the pair called the tombs was an utter failure. Too many walkers everywhere to give a meaningful chase through the area. They need more people so that they could actually get through the area. If they could find a way to seal off whatever breach was allowing the walkers into the

Beth sat alone in one of the prison cells of Cell Block C. She kept thinking about everything that happened since the farm, hell since the beginning of the world’s death and reanimation. Every bad thing that happened, which pretty much was everything since the beginning. Nothing good ever went right. Or at least, that was what she thought until she asked herself the deep questions and answered them truthfully.

What went wrong? What had gone wrong?

They lost the farm. She lost her family and never knew if they died or lived. Daryl lost his group. They had no shelter for months. They struggled to survive the elements and the walkers. They lost the mansion after a paltry few weeks.

She asked herself another question, the opposite-oriented question.

But what hadn’t gone wrong? Or better yet? What had gone right?

Beth found her way into Daryl’s arms. They had found that mansion and spent a few weeks together that allowed them to become more than companions. She learned how to hold her own against the walkers and hostile humans. Best of all, they found the prison.

Beth focused on the positives that have happened since the walker horde took the farm. She also realized that she needed to tell Daryl the truth, at least her suspicions. When she went outside, she found the gate wide open and Daryl up in the guard tower.

She went up to meet him. He was standing like a faithful guard dog, overlooking the area. There was only one person in the prison, a person more than capable of protecting herself if she needed to. But Beth knew that Daryl would always protect her. He would protect her even if he were on his deathbed, his last moments of life. Beth would do the same for him.

“Hey, girl. You alright?”

Beth nodded. “Yeah.”

He kissed her and hugged her. He was nothing less than thankful to have a girl like him in her life. A moral center, a constant presence that reminded him everyday of the outsider’s potential for the greatest good. Daryl knew he’d still be alive without her, but who would he be without her accidental influence on his actions.

Beth was clearly doing better than before, but she was still tense. Daryl knew that she still had something eating away at her mind. “What’s wrong, girl?”

She was quiet and retreated into herself. He lifted her face by her chin so that she was looking him in the eye. Beth surrendered and dropped two extremely heavy words.

“I’m pregnant.”

Daryl just stared at her for a few seconds wordlessly. The silence made Beth a bit nervous. The one thing he was able to say was, “Uh…”

“Uh…” she parroted.

“Shit…Are you sure?”

Beth nodded. “I mean…malnutrition and my age and all that, my period’s never been real stable. Everything smells really strong all of a sudden, and I’ve never had cramps without bleeding. Not to mention, I keep tasting something copper in my mouth for some reason. That last one is what’s making think so.”

“Well…fuck.” Daryl wasn’t sure how to react. “You’re gon’ need to eat a bit more. Better find the cafeteria, then.”

“Yeah, I know.” Beth laughed nervously and without humor, facing the ground.

“Hey. We’ll figure it out. It ain’t like you gotta think about your career anymore.” Beth appreciated his humorous jab. Her smile lit up the area like a natural light bulb. As long as she smiled, the world seemed a little less dark and deadly, even if only for a moment.

Beth tenderly touched her stomach beneath her clothes. She pulled Daryl’s hand so that he’d do the same. His face was extremely ambiguous, a cross between joy and dread and anger. His face was split between all three. Joy that he was probably having a baby with a good woman in a good place, dread for the fact of how dangerous birth could be and the fact that they had no medical experts, anger for not considering any of this and being so careless to cum inside her without a second thought.

Beth herself was split between her emotions. A part of her was naturally joyful for the possibility having a new life growing inside of her, which was what she always wanted. She always wanted and looked forward to motherhood, save that she never thought she’d be a prospective mother at 17. The other part of her was terrified that she might not live to see her eighteenth birthday, or that her baby might not survive the pregnancy. What then?

It was too much for either of them to absorb in the moment. They just stood there with their hands touching Beth’s stomach, enjoying the fact that under their hands was a life born of their sexual union. Daryl never thought himself a father, but now he was.

* * *

_It took us a little bit, but me and Daryl have decided that we’d be happy if it turns out that I’m pregnant. I was in so much denial about it, just chalking it up to stress and malnutrition, that I didn’t even want to tell it to you. But…I had to accept it. And it was a lot easier once I did. Looks to be the same for Daryl._

_We fashioned one of the cells into an armory. It’s full of stuff, thanks to us refusing to use guns unless absolutely necessary. We haven’t had a necessary situation since we lost the farm. Thus, we’ve got a whole stockpile of weaponry. Our truck is still outside beyond that bus, but now there’s nothing in it to take._

_We even restored our supply of arrows and then some. Daryl brought in some wood and carved more arrows for us, a bunch of fresh ones. We spent the rest of the day cleaning out the prison cell. Slowly, but surely, the prison walkers ganging up on the door lost interest and wandered away back into the tombs._

_I really don’t want to go back in there, but we don’t have a choice. Best not to stretch our luck, especially because of my very likely pregnancy. We need a good supply of food, unless I starve until a miscarriage. Daryl’s not gonna let that happen. He’ll go in there by himself if he has to, and I’m not letting him. We go in together, it’s our only safe bet._

Beth put down her book, sliding it beneath a bed. She relaxed into the mattress inside one of the cells on the upper floor. This place could have everything they could ever need, now all they had to do was find it. But maybe that would be far more difficult than they ever could have imagined.

Beth clenched her head, which felt like someone was taking a compactor to both sides of her skull. She groaned as she stood up out of bed and out of the cell. Daryl was already lying down, topless in the dual mattresses. Beth stripped down until she was comfortable and flopped down next to him.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” Beth half-lied. “I just really don’t wanna go back in there again.”

“I don’t neither. But we gotta. At least we sort of know where we’re goin’ now.”

Beth rolled over and leaned to kiss Daryl. His response came swiftly, with him rolling on top of her, not letting their lips separate. He propped his hands on either side of her, holding himself up. She wrapped her arms around him, wrapping her arm across his back to his shoulder.

“Wait, wait,” Beth said, pushing against his chest.

“What? What’d I do?”

“Nothing, it’s just, I’m surprised. Given that we’re not alone in the room anymore.” Beth giggled.

“Well, I’m actually proud of that fact,” Daryl said, with a smug smile.

“I never thought you’d be _excited_ to be a daddy,” Beth said.

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Daryl’s smile faded and he pulled off of her, standing up. His voice was stern and angered.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Beth reassured, standing up to meet him. “It’s just that when I first met you, you stayed at a camp on the other side of the fields near the trees. I didn’t think you’d ever want to be with anyone, let alone have a kid.”

Clearly it didn’t help. “That what you really think of me?”

“Daryl…” Beth didn’t know how to retract this whole thing. She realized just how badly she misspoke. More than that, she was desperately trying to find a way to articulate her thoughts about Daryl looking forward to fatherhood.  

“You think I’d just leave you in the dust, let you be the one worryin’? Is that what you think I am?”

“NO!” Beth screamed. “I don’t think that whatso-fuckin’-ever! I was just surprised that you’re _looking forward_ to it, especially considering how you reacted to it, like you react to everything else.”

“And what’s that? How do I react to everythin’?” Daryl’s southern Georgia twang came out strong and fierce.

“You always go ‘Okay. Let’s deal with this. We should do this.’ And that’s exactly what you did when I told you I’m pregnant,” Beth described. Daryl’s expression softened as he realized that she wasn’t wrong with his description. He ran his hands through his hair and scratched at his neck in guilt.

“Sorry.”

“I really didn’t mean to make you upset or whatever. You barely react to shit a lotta the time. I barely see you excited for anythin’.” Daryl turned away from Beth and punched the wall. Not hard enough to hurt his hand, but enough that it concerned Beth. He punched the wall once and then rested his head against his hands on the wall.

Beth took off the rest of her clothes and slowly came up to Daryl from behind, wrapping him from behind. He felt that she was naked, and his attentions were directed from his self-loathing to his arousal. “Daryl, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anythin’. You’re gonna be a great daddy, and I’m happy that my baby will have you as its daddy.”

He turned around to face Beth, cradling her face and kissing her deeply. He dropped his pants and underwear and followed her onto the mattresses, softly kissing her all the way. His fingers found their way down to her cut, where he found her favorite spot that made her moan and groan loudly.

“Daryl, stop, I don’t…not _this_ fast.”

He stopped just short of her coming around his fingers, leaving her almost literally high and dry, just waiting for that extra push. Daryl did exactly what she asked, not letting her come too fast, and yet he teased her by bringing her only just to that point. She moaned loudly, too overcome by the lingering ghost sensations to even beg for him to keep going. No matter how many times he did this, it was still just as intoxicating.

Daryl grabbed hold his own rock-hard dick, dragging the fingers that were inside her over it, making it slick and easy to go in her. He softly gripped her hair, lightly tugging on the blonde strands. He placed his other arm against the mattresses, and Beth guided him to her wet warm entrance, and he pushed inside.

“You feel so fuckin’ good,” Daryl muttered. He set his favorite pace and power, a gentle speed but forceful thrusts. Slow enough to make it last longer than five minutes, forceful enough to give them both a good time. His face hovered close to hers, close enough that they were breathing the same air.

“I can’t tell if you’re just bein’ lazy or not,” Beth whispered. She locked her hands around his back, trying to pull at him to go faster. She failed, though it made it that much more difficult for him to accidentally slip out of her.

“What are we gonna do when the kid’s here?”

Daryl, breathing heavily and trying keep control, stopped and rested inside her. He savored the feeling of their synchronous pulsing. “Just be extra quiet…and wait until they’re sleepin’.”

“And when my stomach gets too big?”

He pulled out and flipped her over onto all fours. “Then we’ll do it like this.” He spoke with a highly predatory voice, lustful and hungering for Beth. He became noticeably more forceful and pushing inside of her like there was no other purpose in life…which of course there wasn’t at the moment.

He was relentless, pressing against her walls, thrusting with power, all in pursuit of a euphoric climax. Beth got there first, as he was pressing against her favorite spot again and again with his finger, that and him being inside her also pushed her forward. She shattered around him with a powerful forceful shockwave of pleasure through her body to the roots of her hair.

Daryl exploded inside of her with full force, thrusting himself to the hilt multiple times until he was finished. Even then, he thrusted a couple more times until he stopped inside of her, still hard and rigid.

He pulled out from her, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. She collapsed stomach-down onto the mattress catching her breath. Daryl fell onto his back next to her. Beth rolled onto her side, letting Daryl spoon her.

“We really need to find the showers. I bet we and this place smell horrible.”

“Let’s not make this our postcoital talk subject,” Daryl slurred.

Beth rolled over to face him, stroking his face and his hair. He kissed her softly.

“I love you,” Beth said.

“I love you,” Daryl responded. He touched her stomach. “And you.”

* * *

Beth was the first to wake up, still naked. At the very least, there was no sweat on their bodies now. Not that it made her feel any cleaner. That, and she can almost literally feel bad breath swirling in her mouth. She put on her pants and decided to playfully put on Daryl’s old shirt as hers. It was obviously way too big on her.

The plumbing system of the prison was still functional. Beth wet her hair, as it was the best thing she could do, and brushed it out a little bit until the knots were out. She let her hair down across her shoulders, which she hadn’t done in a while.

She left Daryl alone and naked on the mattresses and went outside to enjoy some sunlight before they would go back into the tombs to find more supplies. If there was one thing in life she wasn’t looking forward to, it was going in there.

It was a little bit difficult to enjoy the sun with all the dead bodies out here. But it was better than nothing. Beth realized the sun was in the wrong position for the morning. As it turned out, it was actually almost noon. Seemed like comfort equated to sleeping in significantly.

The soft breeze made that blew her soft blonde hair snuck its way into the vest, making her shiver. It wasn’t often that cool breezes snuck past clothing and straight onto her chest. Didn’t help that she hadn’t had a bra on. In fact, she hadn’t worn one for months. No real need for them.

She walked further down next to the tower and scanned the field. It was still full of bodies that needed to be cleared. They wouldn’t be able to do that for a while until they got their strength back and cleared the bus out of the way. There was still so much to do to clean this place up, make it a true home.

Beth heard something in the wind. At first, she couldn’t determine what it was, but then it became louder. It was the sound of a car. No, more than one. _Multiple_ cars pulled up to the front gate.

“Oh my God…”

Beth sprinted back into the cell block, locking every door possible behind her, including every door in the common area.

“Daryl! Daryl! Wake up!” Beth screamed, shaking him by the shoulders.

“Wha—what is it?” he said groggily.

“Someone’s here!” Beth said. “A caravan just pulled up to the gates!”

That got Daryl up and running instantly. He shot up and pulled on some clothes haphazardly, only his vest was available as a top. He and Beth grabbed some firearms from their personal armory.

“I locked all the doors, I could, but we don’t have anythin’,” she said in a panic.

“Calm down. It ain’t like they couldn’t just cut through the damn fence with the right shit,” Daryl reassured. “Keep your breathin’ steady—”

“I know. I know.” Beth took a few deep breaths to calm down. “I’m calm,” she sighed. She was still horrified out of her mind, and especially horrified that people were already coming here just two nights after they first found this place.

“You said you locked the doors?” Daryl asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I got an idea.”

Beth listened silently.

“Unlock all the doors leading here. Let’s lead ‘em into a trap.”

Beth stood alone next to the door leading into tombs directly from Cell Block C, the door on the other side of the cell block opposite that which lead to the common area. She hid in the darkness, hoping that no walkers would show up right now.

Daryl hid in a cell on the far side of the upper floor, crouching and remaining absolutely silent. They listened as the sliding door leading outside opened up, and one door after another opened up. They were heading right in the direction they wanted.

Daryl tried to get a look without peeking too far. He could only see the tops of heads, enough to make a rough count of who was coming in. It looked like there were four people. He got his gun ready to shoot, as Beth readied her own weapon. Daryl was just about to initiate the ambush when a single word from a familiar female voice rang through the area, changing everything that happened in the last ten minutes. It changed everything......everything.

“Bethy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you’re wondering, Beth is very early in her pregnancy. The symptoms I described are consistent with being three weeks. She isn’t completely sure just yet, but she and Daryl act so because they know it’s very likely. Obviously, I wouldn’t bring up the subject if she wasn’t, but In-Universe she isn’t certain, so the language may seem a bit ambiguous, sometimes acting like she is and sometimes acting like she only could be pregnant. Just know that she is in fact pregnant, and that this subplot of her uncertainty is what will play directly into the story.


	8. Chapter 8

Beth froze in place, certain beyond words that she didn’t hear what she just heard. Daryl had frozen in place just the same. They couldn’t have heard that. Nobody in the world would have ever said that except for…

“Bethy?”

It happened again. There was no mistake about it. A voice was calling to Beth, a woman’s voice called to her, saying a name that only one woman left alive would ever use. But Beth was still not sure. She had to look for herself.

She emerged from her hiding spot behind the door. The light from the windows inside the cell block illuminated Beth’s face in the darkness.

It was Maggie standing right there. She looked straight through the bars. At first, she looked like she was going to cry. And then the smile came to both of their faces.

“Oh my God…” Beth muttered. She opened the door. That was when she saw the others behind her. Glenn, T-Dog and Rick. She just froze in place in disbelief and relief and ecstasy.

Maggie looked at her in joyful tears, slowly approaching her slowly until she was close enough to touch her baby sister’s shoulder. “What are you wearin’?” Beth laughed with her and collapsed into her arms, the joyful cries echoing like a beautiful song through the cell block.

“No fuckin’ way.” Daryl came out from his hiding spot, completely unable to believe that what he was seeing was real. T-Dog looked up straight at him and loudly cheered. Rick and Glenn nearly cried.

“I knew it,” Glenn said. “I knew it.” He swiftly noticed the open gate. On his correct impulse, he closed it.

“Oh Maggie!” Beth cried.

“Bethy…I knew you made it. I knew it.” Maggie shed tears into Beth’s shoulder. “I knew it…” The sisters fell to the floor crying out of utter joy. Both of them had resigned themselves to never seeing each other again, even if they were both still alive.

Daryl came down the stairs. Glenn ran up to him first. They both shook familiar hands, but that wasn’t enough for Daryl. He pulled the guy he mistakenly called a Chinaman into a manly embrace. “How you doin’? Korea?”

Glenn couldn’t hold his laughter. “You remembered.”

“Course I did,” Daryl said. He greeted T-Dog and Rick just the same.

“Never thought I’d accept a hug from a Dixon,” T-Dog dryly remarked.

“How’d y’all know it was us?” Daryl asked.

“A cool-looking bike with a couple of SS bolts on it? Plus the head of blonde hair running away as soon as we pulled up? Easy math,” Rick described. Daryl noticed the open door and quickly shut it.

“Where’s Daddy? Is he—”

“He’s outside honey. Come on,” Maggie claimed, pulling her sister off the ground and leading her to the sliding door. Beth let go of Maggie’s hand and ran out the door into the sunlight.

Sure enough, everyone else was out there. Hershel, Lori, Carl, Carol. Hershel was the only one of them to look at her like a person instead of a ghost. It took the other three a moment to register Beth’s face, at which point they smiled and almost laughed.

“Daddy…” Beth ran up to her father and dove into his chest. She went from looking like a ghost to a little girl wallowing in her father’s arms. Hershel wrapped his arms around her. Maggie wasn’t far behind, following right behind her, and joining up in the family cuddle.

“Oh Bethy…I knew it,” he cried and laughed together. The others all came around and joined the embrace. A joyful moment for Hershel was a joyful moment for them all. Carl was furthest in, wrapping his short arms around Beth.

Daryl and the other guys came back out to the beautiful sight.

“We tried to find you,” Daryl said. “Spent weeks.”

“Same. But we didn’t even know where to start,” Rick said.

“What happened to Andrea?”

“Lost her back at the farm. Don’t know where she is or if she’s even alive,” T-Dog said.

The beautiful cuddle split apart, finally allowing Beth to stand up. She was still holding onto her dad, who was still far taller than she was. She cried into her shoulder like a little child. She basically was reduced to a child, as she cried into his shoulder and kept saying his name, just like a little kid excited to see her father after he was gone all day at work.

Even Daryl couldn’t keep a tear from falling out of his eye.

* * *

The reunited group convened in the common area, where people sat down and enjoyed some food that night. They had a combined food stash, so it’d last a little bit longer. The months all went away like nothing. It just faded and faded like they had been together the whole time. Beth cuddled up between her father and sister, the latter of whom was attached at the hip to Glenn. Daryl sat alone, much to Beth’s sorrow.

“How’d you guys get out?” Lori asked lightly.

Beth answered, “After you tried to save me, I just ran. I just ran and ran. The next thing I knew, my legs wanted to give out under me. Daryl heard me screaming and saved my life. The herd cut us off, kept us from the highway.”

“I’m sorry,” Lori said. “I should’ve—”

“If you tried to come after me in all that, I would’ve gotten you killed. You and the baby,” Beth interrupted.

“How long have you guys been here?” Rick asked.

“Two nights. This is the third,” Daryl answered.

“You killed all those walkers outside just the two of you?” Carol thought aloud.

Daryl chuckled. “You can thank Beth over here for that. She’s the one that saw the sign that lead here, and the one who convinced me this place was worth the fight.”

“Stop degrading yourself. You were the one who came up with the idea of how to fight these assholes,” Beth commented.

“Watch your mouth,” Hershel demanded with a smile. Beth finally realized that her father had grown a nice Santa Claus beard in the last several months. She was grateful to even hear him say that to her again.

“Sorry. I tried to keep her from using that language, but I discovered how pointless it is tryin’ to win an argument with her,” Daryl commented.

“Doesn’t help that _you_ use worse language all the time.”

“Shut up.”

The others laughed at Daryl’s expense. He held his face in his hands to keep anyone from seeing him turn red. He was happy that Beth chose to be with her father and Maggie, because he wasn’t exactly prepared for people to react to him and Beth just yet.

“Bethy? Sing Paddy Reilly for me. I don’t think I’ve heard that since your mother was alive,” Hershel requested.

“Daddy, not that one please.”

Hershel acquiesced to Maggie’s soft and sad request. “How about _The Parting Glass_?”

Everyone looked at her expectantly, leaning in. Daryl was particularly interested. Beth hadn’t sung around him before, and he didn’t even know that she could.

Beth took a breath and sighed. She started singing one note after another, a simple little melodic drinking song. Her naturally beautiful speaking voice became something else, something angelic and gorgeous. Her voice resonated within the common area, giving it an almost chorus-like echo.

Hershel shed a couple of tears hearing his youngest baby girl’s voice again. He massaged her shoulder like he would when she was but a little girl. She still was, as all little girls are to their doting fathers. He wasn’t planning on losing her any time soon…or at all.

Maggie joined her in the song. It had been a long time even before the dead came back that they sang together. Their voices together sounded even more gorgeous. The gentle and soothing sounds of their singing voices was a welcome relief from the perpetual moans of walkers.

The song came to its end. No dramatic big final notes, just a calm ending to a calm drinking song.

“Beautiful.” That was the perfect word to describe those songs. The best word Hershel could have used.

“Better all turn in. Got a big day ahead of us,” Rick said.

“What do you mean?” Glenn asked.

“I know we’re all exhausted. This was a great win. But we gotta push just a little bit more. Gotta find the cafeteria and the infirmary. This place is a gold mine.”

“You think we haven’t tried already?” Beth muttered. “We’ve already been in those tombs, it’s full of walkers.”

“We tried yesterday. We were gon’ do the same today, but then you guys showed up at our front door,” Daryl said.

“Well, now you got more people to help you,” Rick commented.

He left back into the cell block and Lori went after him, holding her stomach. He heard her coming but refused to look behind him at her. She didn’t speak to him until he finally did.

“I appreciate everything you’re doing, we all do. But it’s been a death march and they’re exhausted. We just found Daryl, and Hershel just found his daughter. Can’t we just enjoy this for a few more days?”

“Baby will be here in a few days,” he dryly muttered. “There’s no time for picnic.”

“No, but it’s time to get the house in order.”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

Pause. “Your absolute best.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Rick dismissed.

“I’m not. I’m just saying the baby is about to be here and we need to talk about—”

“About what?” Rick jabbed with a glare.

“Things we’ve been avoiding—”

“You wanna talk? Talk to Hershel.”

Lori realized that trying to make some amends with her husband and trying to speak with him at all was a lost cause. She changed the subject. “Speaking of whom, you do realize that he just found his daughter today? How about her, the fact that she finally found her family again? You’re just gonna drag them into those halls that Beth and Daryl said are dangerous? What if something happens to Beth or Hershel or Maggie.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen,” Rick evaded.

“How do you know? If anything happens to them…Do I really need to spell it out?” Lori said.

Rick did what he did best when presented with something beyond his own ability to handle. He walked away without another word. Lori turned around to see Beth standing right there.

“Thank you for the concern, but you ain’t gotta worry about me. I’m ready to go back in there,” Beth told her. “What happened between you two?”

“It was about Shane. Long story,” Lori answered vaguely.

“Shane? He’s been that cold to you for seven months?” Beth made sure to speak loud enough that Rick would hear her unmistakably. If he did, he gave no indication.

Lori touched Beth’s shoulder and shook her head. “It’s okay.”

Daryl headed into the cell block to catch a few z’s before the big day tomorrow. Before he could head up the stairs, Hershel tapped his shoulder. “Daryl? May I have a word?” Daryl followed him into one of the cells. Daryl sat with Hershel when he patted the side of the bed.

“I want to thank you for saving my baby girl’s life.”

“It wasn’t nothin’. In fact, she saved my life. I got sick right after the farm. She kept me alive all that time, taught herself a lotta shit.”

“I imagine,” he said. “I also imagine that you too became close in that time.”

“Yes,” Daryl answered.

“I see the way she looks at you. I also saw how you tried to avoid looking at her.” Hershel’s look and his voice… “Is there something you both should tell me?”

Daryl retreated into himself, not literally but in his mind. What was he supposed to say? There was a lot to say. _I’ve been fucking your daughter since the blizzard. Hey, to rub salt in the wound, she’s probably pregnant with my unholy Dixon offspring._ Yeah, that didn’t sound like it would fly. Not to mention, it wasn’t like he felt comfortable revealing all the different ways they grew together, how he grew comfortable enough to let her be on top, how they could even have casual conversations while his hard cock was inside of her bare, how his hands had touched every part of her skin. So Daryl said nothing. And from Hershel’s visible reaction, that spoke volumes.

“How long?”

“Since the night of the snowstorm,” Daryl sighed.

“How far has it gone?”

Once again, Hershel’s cool, elderly, soothing voice was more painful than the metal clip of belts against his skin. What was he going to do? Tell him about that blizzard night? About the mansion? About the warm bed sheets they shared? About the fact he wore plaid pants without a shirt all around the house for her to touch him in their free time? Maybe he could tell him about the times he sucked marks into her neck and how she scratched trails into his back. Yeah…not happening anytime soon. However, there was one thing that he believed Hershel should know.

“She’s pregnant. Probably.”

Silence and more silence. Hershel looked down. His face was inexpressive and unreadable to Daryl. He didn’t know if he should be frightened or relieved at that fact.

“I’m sorry,” Daryl said preemptively.

Still Hershel remained silent for a few more moments before saying, “Rick and the others always spoke highly of you. My daughter looks at you with nothing but reverence and…worship almost.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m not sure what I think about you and my daughter being an item,” Hershel finished. That was better than a straight-up antagonistic response. Hopefully he wouldn’t decide it was something he couldn’t stomach. That would be difficult…especially considering how she and him were probably expecting.

* * *

_Well…yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I found my family again. The stars aligned and brought them back to me. They found their way to this prison. What are the odds? Millions to one? Maybe not. They never left the state. We didn’t either._

_The only one missing was Andrea. They lost her back at the farm, but they don’t know if she’s dead or not. They were never able to find her. Didn’t help that I was accidentally hogging all to myself for all that time._

_Daryl told my daddy about us. I was a bit surprised by his supportive stance on it. I can still see the natural twinge of disapproval in his eyes, but he’s hiding. Maybe he’s too happy to pay attention to it right now. I just hope that when the initial surge of joy fades that he’ll still see it the same way._

_I told Maggie this morning about us, and that I’m pretty sure that I’m pregnant. Turns out she figured us out. She said something about me and Daryl having way too much eye sex, or something like that. The likelihood of my pregnancy was just the icing on the cake. I think everyone’s so blinded by happiness, except for Rick, that nobody really gives a damn about it. I think it helps that everyone knows Daryl already._

_I still don’t fully understand the strife between Lori and Rick. For something that happened nearly a year ago? Honestly, if he’s still holding it against her, that’s all on him. It ain’t on Lori for his behavior. Angry? That’s fine. But anger fades with time. He’s holding a grudge, being spiteful. I just hope he figures out his shit before the baby’s here. Cause when that baby gets here…Lori may not be._

_Carl…he’s looking at me with those eyes. Those cute eyes that tell me he’s got a crush on me. I am the youngest female here, but I hope he figures out that I’m taken. He’s a cute little kid. He’ll be fine._

_I slept in the same room with my daddy. Maggie was with Glenn, as expected. Those two are just like me and Daryl, sickeningly inseparable…and probably doing it in all the wrong places. I think we might have to choose our preferred guard towers if we want any privacy. Unless we happen to clear out other cell blocks._

“What are you doing, Bethy?” Hershel sat down with her. Beth was so focused on writing down things that she didn’t realize that her father was right there. Last she noticed, he was talking with the other guys and Daryl about some of the weapons from the prison. Rick had a better sense of what they were than either Beth or Daryl.

“Just writin’. Been doin’ that a lot recently.”

“I remember you kept a diary before all of this.”

“Yeah…I kinda wish that I didn’t lose it on the farm.”

Hershel pulled something out from his pocket. It was Beth’s diary, years of her life chronicled in an autobiographical format from when she was little to right before the onset of the apocalypse, decorated just like you’d expect a little girl to. “Maggie found it in all our stuff. Kept it with us this whole time. Occasionally read through it to reminisce about old memories.”

Beth took it, breathing a nice sigh. A part of her wanted to cry from happiness. This was a time capsule of her life, all the good in her life she had before, and some of which she still had with her. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“Hershel?” Carol came into the room.

“Everything all right?” Rick asked.

Carol nodded. Beth’s daddy followed her upstairs. Must be about Lori. Hopefully, everything was fine.

Beth took her journal to the room where the slept beneath her father. She placed the journal on the bed, someplace she could easily find it. She came back to find T-Dog examining some more of the riot gear from other walkers, including a riot shield. Beth didn’t get all of it, and some of it was still dripping with decomposed old flesh. It was nearly enough to make her throw up just looking at it. She went back and got the one she used yesterday. “This one might be better, T.”

“Nah, that one’s all yours. I can clean up some of this. Thank you.”

“You’re not coming with us,” Rick said. 

“I’m the only other person who’s been in those tombs. You need the best chance you’ve got. That, and I’m the only person who can kill walkers at a distance without noise.” Beth saw that Rick was about to open his mouth again, so she said, “Don’t try to talk me out of it.”

Rick looked at Daryl. “Don’t look at me for help. I learned the hard way what it’s like to try to talk her outta somethin’.”

T-Dog chuckled with him. Beth helped him to clean up some of the riot gear with anything they could find around. Glenn and Hershel took a set of gear, as well as Maggie and T-Dog. He had the extra boost of a riot shield. Rick and Daryl were fine without it. Carl was having some fun with the helmet, shooting little glances at Beth.

“You won’t need that,” Rick started. “I need you to stay put.”

“You’re kidding.” Carl dropped the helmet and put the sheriff’s hat back on.

“Beth and Daryl told us that place is a maze and full of walkers. Something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing. I need you to handle things here.”

Surprisingly, Carl was okay with this. “Sure.”

* * *

Daryl locked the door to the common area behind them. Beth left her set of keys with Carl to keep the cell block secure. He led the way alongside Rick, with Beth trailing directly behind them.

The turn that was right past the first arrow was marked with a long line of spray paint. “What’s that?” Glenn asked.

“This is where walkers chased us down. They could be anywhere here now,” Daryl said.

“Where should we go?” Rick asked.

“If that’s where the walkers chased you, I don’t want to go down there,” Glenn commented. “Maybe the way you took last time is clear.”

“I’ll go scout ahead. Stay here,” Beth volunteered. She readied her bow for firing if needed. She walked swiftly but silently. Staying out in the woods for a good period of time, you learn how to do that. She stopped just short of the corner and peeked around. It was clear.

The others slowly followed her down the hall. Maggie and Glenn trailed the group, and they stopped for some reason. On instinct, they turned around to find walkers coming at them. A whole lot of them, cutting off their escape route.

“Run! Run! Walkers!” Glenn alerted them. Hershel ended up tripping over a dead body’s hand in the confusion, but T-Dog managed to keep him from falling over. Beth waited for them and led them down the same path where she and Daryl originally hid from the walkers the first time.

In the confusion, Glenn and Maggie ended up cut off by more walkers, forcing them to hide somewhere else in the halls.

“This seems familiar,” Beth muttered.

“Where’s Glenn and Maggie?” Rick noticed.

“We have to go back,” Hershel said.

“Which way?” Daryl said.

Rick stood up and looked out the grate of the door. It was all quiet by that point. They left their hiding spot and started searching for Maggie and Glenn. They started heading through the area, shining their lights down the halls.

“Maggie? Glenn?” Hershel and Beth whispered.

Hershel was trailing behind the others when he was certain that he heard Maggie’s voice calling for him. He quietly went back the same way they just came, saying his daughter’s name. He slowly walked back the way he came, feeling a little bit foolish for not calling the others’ attention.

The results of his lapse in judgement had disastrous results, as a corpse he walked by turned out not to be a corpse. It was a walker. It sprung to life and sank its teeth straight into Hershel’s right calf. His loud screams drew everyone and every _thing_ in the vicinity to his location, bringing back Rick’s splinter of the group. He didn’t waste any time shooting the walker in the head. There went any chance of them staying quiet.

“Daddy!” Beth screamed, immediately diving down to his side. “No, no, no.”

Maggie and Glenn found them right after. The former couldn’t stop herself from screaming in horror alongside her sister. Beth was trying to lift him up off the ground, blood spewing out of his leg. Rick gently pulled her away from him and did it himself with help from Glenn.

Walkers started coming from the corner in front of them. They tried to take him the other way, but walkers came from there. Their only hope was to head down the hallway, the only way left. It led straight to doors that were held shut with a pair of handcuffs. Everyone was loudly clamoring, trying to do something, desperate for Hershel. T-Dog broke off the cuffs and everyone dove inside the room. Glenn and Rick set Hershel on the ground while Daryl and T-Dog held the door shut, the former placing his fire poker between the handles to keep it shut.

“You got it?” Daryl yelled.

“Yes!”

Rick ripped open his pant leg to reveal the bite wound. It was huge, the walking having taken an enormous chunk of his calf muscle, pieces of the muscle just hanging out of him like wet paper.

“Hold him down.” Rick took off his belt and wrapped it above Hershel’s knee.

“What are you—” Beth already knew what he was planning on doing.

“Only one way to keep you alive.” He grabbed his hatchet.

Daryl grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t look at him. Look at me.” Beth took the extra step of burying her face into his chest.

It didn’t help any once Rick started hacking away at Hershel’s lower leg above the bite wound. The sound of his flesh squelching and being chopped away was almost more than Beth could take. Maggie reached over to touch her sister’s hand which was gripping one of the wings on Daryl’s vest.

Hershel passed out from a mixture of intense pain and blood loss. Maggie was right there holding him, trying to hold herself together just the same. Eventually she threw herself off Daryl, feeling like she was legitimately going to throw up.

Daryl tenderly touched her back, trying to comfort her as best he could. But then he saw five people stand up from behind a grate. Beth happened to turn around to see it, too.

“Duck.” Rick listened. Daryl pointed his weapon at the group of inmate-dressed survivors.

“Holy shit.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Who the hell are you?” Daryl said.

“Who the hell are _you_?” responded one of the inmates.

Beth turned around to see the inmates. Rick was still ducking down. She saw his holstered colt python. Seeing it as better than a crossbow or a regular bow against hostile humans, Beth grabbed it out of his holster and stood alongside her boyfriend in case these inmates tried anything.

“He’s bleeding out. We gotta go back,” Rick said, still disgusted and horrified by what he did to Hershel’s leg. Necessary it might have been, but it was nonetheless difficult to deal with what he did. He took off his holster belt, tightened around Beth’s waist and put the ammo he had in the pouch on the belt.

He turned his attention to Glenn and Maggie. “Come around here, put pressure on the knee.” Maggie did just that. “Hard, hard! Push hard!”

“Got it.”

“Why don’t you come on outta there? Slow and steady,” Daryl said to the inmates.

They all did just that. The one that came out first, a Latin guy, had a gun visibly stuffed into his pants. Beth immediately took him as the most hostile threat and focused her attention on him. They all were looking at Hershel.

“What happened to him?” asked the gun-holder inmate.

“He got bit,” Beth answered.

“Bit?” he said confused, pulling out his gun. T-Dog joined Beth and Daryl with his own gun, aiming him down.

“Whoa, easy now. Nobody needs to get hurt,” Daryl said to keep things from spiraling downward out of control.

Maggie and Rick worked together to help Hershel. Glenn walked right past the standoff to look for something. There were no medical supplies in the room. But there was something. He cleared off a rolling server cart to use as a stretcher.

Walkers were still banging on the door from the outside.

“Who the hell are you people anyway?” said the gun-holder.

“Don’t look like no rescue team,” said the white guy.

“If a rescue team’s what you’re waiting for, don’t!” Rick yelled.

As Glenn brought out the makeshift stretcher, Rick and Maggie lifted Hershel up onto it, exposing his fresh bloodied stump for everyone to see, much to the impulsive revulsion and disgust of the white inmate. T opened the door. Thankfully, only one walker was still there, an armored one that he swiftly killed.

“Daryl! Beth!” Rick called as they rolled Hershel out. They were slow to leave, and Beth made sure to pick up her bow. They quickly got out of the room, which turned out to be a cafeteria and down the dark halls heading back to the cell block. The group turned left when they needed to turn right.

“No, no! This way!” Rick told them, realizing their mistake. Beth and Daryl took the front and center to keep the way clear. Two walkers blocked their path, and they both fell to the couple’s arrows. The path in front of them was clear.

“Come on!” Daryl yelled. “Go! Go! Go!”

With nothing else to fight, Beth immediately went back to her father’s side, trying to help push the primitive stretcher. Rick stopped them when he heard the inmates following them by the light of their flashlights. At Beth and Maggie’s insistence, they kept going until they got back to the cell block. Carl quickly opened the door once he heard his father’s voice calling for it, citing Hershel’s precarious condition.

Daryl and T-Dog stayed in the common area to deal with the inmates while the rest went back in to help Hershel. Or rather, tried to help at all. Once the group got him onto a bed and Carol took charge to help him, Beth felt utterly useless and helpless to do something to help her father.

Why did this happen? Why would God bring him back to her only to tear him away from her not even a full day after she got back with him? He deserved better, deserved to meet his grandchildren, from both her and Maggie, and so much more. _God…why would you do this? Why would you bring him back to me just to tear him away from me? Are you gonna do the same to Maggie? The others? Daryl? Just tear them away from me?_

She was pulled from her agony when Lori touched her shoulders, having seen her rapid descent into negativity, pessimism and hopelessness. “He’s gonna be okay, sweetie. He’s gonna be okay.”

_I hope so._

The sound of the prisoners, Daryl and T-Dog getting into an argument pulled Beth’s attention, along with everyone else’s.

“What is that?” Lori asked.

“Prisoners. Survivors,” Rick answered. “I think I’m gonna need that back.”

Beth took the belt he gave her off and returned it to him. “Thank you.”

“Thank _you_.”

* * *

_I don’t even know how long it’s been since Daddy got bit. I don’t mean days, I mean…hours. Everything is going so slow all of a sudden, so slow. It feels like it was hours ago, but it’s barely been more than an hour in real life. I keep looking in on him, hoping that he’ll miraculously wake up, but… I guess I can’t really expect that much of a miracle, can I? I keep hoping that he’ll be alright, like Lori. She keeps telling us that he will get better, that he will recover. Carol did manage to stop the bleeding._

_Daryl, Rick, and the others all brought back food from the cafeteria. A lot of it. Enough to last for weeks without replenishing, not that it’s a good idea to take chances. Carl’s in charge of organizing it. They’re all still dealing with those inmates, showing them the ropes, I think._

_Daryl and I talked about them. I shared my opinion with him. I’m pretty sure that the ones we’ll have problems with are the Latin guy and the shortest guy. The other three seem like actually nice people. I can just see the bloodlust behind the Latin guy’s eyes. And the shortest guy looks to him all the time. I gotta wonder if they screwed around a time or two. Maybe. Nothing against gay people, but ass stuff…just no… The other three, I just sense that they’re good people. I don’t know for sure, but I think it might have something to do with how one of them kept mentioning something about his kids and his old lady, and another one talking about his mom. The white guy seems a bit off, but then again, so does Rick. It’s just everyone’s blinded by loyalty to him that they don’t see that he’s definitely not stable._

_You’d think that after that night, I’d trust people about as much as I trust a rusty nail not to get me sick. But…I still believe. I think my belief grew stronger. Maybe it’s more because I feel guilty about what I did. ~~Maybe~~ I want redemption for it._

_My sister and I almost got into an argument earlier. I was cutting Daddy’s pants so that he wouldn’t have something dragging around when he would be using his crutches. Maggie said absolutely nothing wrong. I just reacted the wrong way, took it the way I wanted to take it. Everything she said was everything I didn’t want to hear._

_It was about how Daddy may not wake up…as himself. Maybe he’ll wake up as something else._

Beth dropped her book and pen. She just admitted that he might…probably won’t wake up as himself. And that when he did, it would be as a hungry monster that would try to bite them, kill them. She’d been denying it and denying it, and now she couldn’t anymore. She had to face that fact…that her daddy who she had hoped for so long to see again was about to be ripped away from her just a day after she found him again. Proof of how relentlessly cruel and cold this world is.

She stood up and walked to her father’s cell. Glenn was sitting on the stairs right next to the cell. Beth approached and peeked in to see her sister standing over his unconscious body. He was handcuffed to the bed. 

“Dad…you don’t have to fight anymore. If you’re worried about me and Beth, don’t. Don’t worry about us. We’ll take care of each other. We’ll look out. Me, Beth and Glenn will look out. Go ahead, Dad. It’s okay. Be peaceful. You don’t have to fight. If it’s time to go, it’s okay.”

Beth couldn’t stop her own tears from coming out as she heard her big sister break down. She walked in and touched her sister’s back. Maggie stood up and embraced her as they both became loud, unable to hold back their grief at watching their dad in such a situation…probably slipping away.

“It’s not fair,” Beth cried. “It’s just not fair.”

“I know. I thought we’d have time,” Maggie said.

Beth remained silent, just staying here for several moments in each other’s arms, standing over their critical condition dad. Maggie was the first to let go. “Sweetie, why don’t you go get some rest or something? I’ll stay here with him.”

She quickly wanted to protest, but this gave her a perfect opportunity to finally make herself useful in this. She nodded her head and left. Glenn, Lori and Carol gave her a pat on the shoulder and entered the cell for some support. An opportunity just presented itself, and Beth had no intention of wasting it. She found Carl in the cell full of food from the cafeteria.

“Hey Carl,” Beth said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“You a good shot with that gun?” Beth asked.

Carl nodded.

“That silencer works?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“What say you that we actually do something useful right now?” Beth offered.

“Like what?”

“Finding the infirmary.”

Carl smiled. Beth did too.

* * *

Beth led the way, flashlight on her waist facing forward, arrow knocked, and bow drawn enough that she can fire off a quick shot. Carl walked to her side, his gun facing forward, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. He sprayed arrows as they moved to mark the way back just like before.

Two walkers were down the hall. Beth fired a single arrow into one while Carl shot the other. They both moved forward, continuing down the marked path that a warden’s map said led to the infirmary.

Beth retrieved her arrow while Carl scouted ahead, peeking around the corner.

“Clear,” he said. Beth met up with him and they continued down through the halls of the prison. It was a straight shot until they reached the infirmary. It was largely empty and messy and looked like it had been cleared out. The guards must have used up a lot of the resources before they died. Was it bad for Beth to be a little annoyed that the guards lived long enough to use the medical supplies?

“Alright. Let’s see what we can get.” Beth handed Carl a bag to fill up. She had one of her own. They went around finding any gauze, bandages, suture sets, first aid kits, and anything else they could find. It was enough to fill up both bags.

“This is great,” Carl commented. “Let’s head back.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy. The moment they opened the doors, their flashlights shined directly on a group of walkers, drawing them straight towards the pair. This was their only way out of the infirmary.

“Shoot! Shoot!”

Beth and Carl combined their efforts, firing at the walkers coming at them, but there were so many of them. It was like they just kept coming. Carl could fire his gun more quickly than Beth could shoot her arrows, but she had more ammo than he did and didn’t need to stop to reload her weapon.

One by one, the walkers died. Some of them, but only a few had riot gear. It was pointless to shoot at them. They did the best they could in the hallway, but they were forced to retreat into the infirmary. The walkers came in, but thankfully, they had thinned them out really good. They didn’t pour in endlessly, there were only a few of them remaining, seven of them, and five of them were armored.

Carl was out of ammo, and Beth’s arrows were low. She took out her machete, and Carl grabbed a dangerously broken piece of a medical pole.

“Aim under the helmet, through the chin,” Beth said.

“Got it.”

The pair of minors kept the armored walkers away from them for the moment to focus on the unarmored walkers and get rid of them. The helmeted walkers couldn’t bite, only grab. The pair dealt with those walkers and then focused on the more difficult armored walkers.

Beth, being bigger, found it easier. She could push them back easily and then jab her machete into the faces or chins without a problem. Carl had to jimmy his pole under the facemask to kill one, but then lost the pole as he couldn’t get it out easy.

He noticed one of Beth’s arrows on the ground. He grabbed it right before the armored walker could touch him and jammed it straight under the walker’s helmet. The walker had to crouch to get him, so it was much easier. And it was much easier to pull the arrow.

The pair killed the armored walkers. They were a bit exhausted, but they did it. They fucking did it. And in the process, they probably ended up clearing out the entire area surrounding the infirmary.

“Awesome,” Carl muttered. They picked up their medical bags, Beth picked up any intact arrows from the walkers, and Carl picked up his discarded magazines. His hat was still a bit big, but it looked awesome on him regardless. A quick check of the area confirmed that there were no more walkers in the immediate area. Beth and Carl locked the area down to cut off wherever more walkers could come from.

They returned to the cell block. Glenn was standing right outside.

“Holy God, what happened to you guys? Wait where did you guys go?” Glenn asked.

Neither of them answered verbally. They dropped their bags next to Carol. She gasped in utter shock and asked, “Where did you get this?”

“From the infirmary. There wasn’t much left, but we cleared it out,” Carl answered.

“You went by yourselves? What happened?” Lori asked horrified at their filthy appearances.

“Walkers, happened. We killed all of them, cleared out the medical both,” Beth answered.

“Look at this. This is our _father_ , Beth. This was with the whole group, or did you guys forget?” Maggie reminded them.

“We’re not hurt. He needed more than towels and blankets, so we went out and did something useful,” Carl retorted.

Lori said, “We appreciate that—”

“Then got off our backs!” Carl shouted. Beth touched his shoulder and shook her head. Neither side was going to win this battle, and children shouldn’t fight against their parents.

“Listen, I think it’s great that you wanna help—” Lori couldn’t finish before Carl stormed off. He’d cool down. After all, he was still just a meager eleven years old. Beth followed after him to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally do something in anger, leaving Maggie and Lori alone to ponder their conflicting emotions about this.

* * *

T-Dog led the way down the path to another cell block for the prisoners to stay in. One of them, the big guy with the fitting name Big Tiny, was already dead. He got scratched up real bad by a walker whose hand was reduced to shards of sharp dead bone. But that wasn’t how he died. He died because Tomas, the Latin guy with a gun, smashed his head in.

The other prisoners, white guy Axel, small guy Andrew and level-headed Oscar, all followed behind. Daryl and Rick trailed behind them, neither of them trusting Tomas at all, not after such a violent act. Guess there was a damn good reason for him to be in here since the beginning of it all, nearly ten months ago.

“You see the look on his face?” Daryl whispered to Rick. It was like no time had passed for them. Daryl was Rick’s right hand after Shane started losing it at the farm. Even after all these months of separation, Rick didn’t hesitate to let him back as his right hand.

“He makes one move,” Rick started.

“Just give me a signal.”

The prisoners and the survivors made their way into the laundry room. There was no one in the room, just a bunch of overturned rolling baskets and some towels all over the place that hadn’t been touched in months. T-Dog closed the door behind them.

Walkers were banging on the exit. Rick tossed Tomas the keys to the door.

“I ain’t opening that,” Tomas decreed.

“Yes, you are,” Rick stated. “If you want this cell block, you’re gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. We need to control this.”

The guy reluctantly picked up the keys and started jangling to open the door. He managed to unlock it. “You bitches ready?” he said. He tried to open it once. It was stuck. Twice, still stuck. When finally opened it, it ended up opening both doors.

“I said one door!”

“Shit happens!”

The group with their melee weapons, crowbars, bats, and the like, fought against the walkers. Several of them. T-Dog made use of his riot shield to keep them from touching him. As Rick and Tomas took out walkers, he barely avoided a swing from Tomas. The swing failed to hit him, so Tomas took a walker and threw it onto Rick.

Daryl saved Rick from the walker. The other prisoners cleared out the rest of the walkers that came in. They got lucky there weren’t a lot of them behind the door, otherwise they’d probably be dead.

Rick, outraged but not expressing it, menaced Tomas.

“It was coming at me, bro,” Tomas claimed.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Shit happens,” Rick repeated. The two men spent several long seconds staring each other down, before Rick buried his machete into Tomas’s skull splitting it.

“No!” screamed Andrew. Rick promptly kicked Andrew down when he tried to hit Rick with his bat. He also clumsily dropped his bat in the process. The coward ran away with Rick in pursuit of him.

Daryl had his crossbow trained on Oscar. “Man, get down on your knees.” He did exactly as he was asked.

“We don’t have no affiliation with what just happened,” Axel claimed. “Tell him, Oscar.”

“Just stop talking, man.”

Rick chased Andrew through the prison halls, one door after another until the latter ended up running into a ruined courtyard full of walkers. Rick locked him out and listened to his screams as the walkers closed in around him, consuming him while he was still alive. It was down to just two prisoners now.

* * *

Beth and Maggie watched over their father in his bed. The former stood over him at the end of the bed where his handcuffed hand was, holding his hand against the skin of her stomach, touching the child that was growing inside her…hopefully.

Carl was watching the whole scene with a cute

“This is your granddaughter,” Beth whispered with a smile.

“How do you know it’s a girl?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t. I’m just saying.”

Hershel was breathing lightly, almost snoring like he normally did when he was asleep. And then he suddenly stopped, his chest no longer moving up and down. Just stopped, and he looked like a lifeless statue on the bed.

“What’s happenin’?” Beth muttered. She moved over her father. Her sister stood up with a resigned mournful look on her face, as she wasn’t fully surprised but no less grieving for her father. Beth hit her father’s chest, feeling his neck, rapidly losing it. “Somebody help! Somebody! Please help!”

Where was Carol in all of this? Right, she went outside with Glenn. They had to do something at her request. If Beth could guess correctly, it would be something about Lori’s baby. It was the only thing that could explain why Carol was cutting a female walker open outside.

Lori came running into the cell. As if she had been through something like this before, she quickly placed her head against Hershel’s chest. She looked over him for a few moments. She pinched his nose and gave him two breaths and compressed his chest several times, counting the whole time. It was a desperate last-ditch move to save Hershel. Maggie held it together so that Beth didn’t have to.

“Come on. Come on, Hershel.”

Upon the second set of breaths, Hershel suddenly flailed his arm, wrapping it around Lori’s head. Maggie and the other panicked, pulling Lori off him, horrified that he might have been a walker and biting her mouth. They got her off him. He wasn’t a walker, just suddenly awake and seemingly mindless, not knowing anything.

Carl had his gun trained on Hershel as he lost consciousness again. The two Greene girls held onto Lori. It seemed that Hershel was alright. He looked like he was breathing. Lori must have been quick enough that Hershel recovered from his lapse in breathing.

* * *

“We didn’t have nothing to do with that,” Oscar claimed.

“You didn’t know? You knew,” Rick decided. “Daryl, let’s end this now.”

Rick aimed his colt python straight at Axel’s head, causing him to break down blubbering and begging for his life.

“Rick,” Daryl said. “You don’t have to.”

“They’re a threat,” Rick claimed.

“Maybe, and if they try something, we’ll kill them. But we don’t know that they will,” Daryl reminded him.

“We don’t know that they won’t.”

“You know who you sound like right now? Shane. You sound like that crazy asshole, and look what happened when he lost his shit over this shit,” Daryl claimed.

That seemed to strike a nerve with T-Dog. He didn’t take his gun off Axel, but he definitely reconsidered this. Rick on the other hand reacted much more hostilely, kind of like a teenager whose parent called them out on something legitimate.

“What’d you say?”

“You know what I said.”

“I’m _nothing_ like Shane. He went out to put a bullet in my back, and I had to kill him. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for this group, Beth’s family,” Rick retorted.

“That kind of thinking you can kill anyone you want. You can kill every stranger just because there’s a chance they’re bad,” Daryl reminded him. “I don’t know about you, but that ain’t who I am.”

“Did you not see what happened just now?” Rick said.

“I saw an asshole try to kill you, and his fuckin’ bitch tried to do somethin’ about it,” Daryl said. “Doesn’t mean these asshats are the same. Let’s just keep to what we been tryin’ to do, clear out a cell block for them, set ground rules. They break ‘em, they die.”

Axel looked straight at Daryl with grateful eyes. Daryl looked back at him with an expression that told him not to thank him just yet. Oscar looked on apathetically, never having begged for anything in his life, and not about to start now.

Rick picked up Axel and physically pushed and dragged him the rest of the way to the cell block, aggressively pushing him in. Oscar was a bit too big for that. T-Dog just kept his weapon trained on him.

There were bodies all throughout the cell block. They weren’t killed by walkers; they were murdered summarily by guards. They were all lying face down out of the cell with bullet holes in their heads.

“Oh man. I knew these guys man. These were good men,” Axel claimed.

“Let’s go,” Rick said apathetically.

“So you’re just gonna leave us in here? This is sick,” Oscar said, the first time he actually pleaded something from them.

“We’re locking down this cell block. From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it. That was the deal,” Rick said again without a hint of emotion towards them.

Daryl stayed another moment with T-Dog. “You think this is sick? You don’t wanna know what’s outside.”

“Consider yourselves the lucky ones,” Rick told them.

“I’m sorry about your friends, man,” Daryl said softly.

T-Dog advised them to take the bodies outside and burn them.

* * *

Beth sat in the stairs within Cell Block C. Lori and Glenn and Maggie stood with Hershel. Beth couldn’t bring herself to stay. She couldn’t bear to see him slip away, this time permanently. The others came back from their campaign to get the prisoner survivors to another cell block.

“Hershel stopped breathing. Mom saved him,” Carl told Rick.

“It’s true,” Glenn supported.

“Still no fever,” Lori said. He came in and stood next to him, taking a good look at him. Hershel’s mouth started moving, like he was trying to speak. Maggie crouched down, alerted, and for the first time, really hopeful.

“Bethy, come here.” She did. Rick moved out of the way to let her stand close to her dad. Moments passed. No sound, no nothing. Just eerie silence as they all watched and waited. Waited for what? For him to die, for him to stay asleep, for him stop breathing again? All the things they didn’t want to wait for, but all they could do was wait.

And then Hershel’s eyes fluttered open. Normal healthy human eyes. He looked around at everyone.

“Daddy?” His daughters knelt next to the bed, tenderly touching him. The relief that flooded their bodies at seeing him alive and well and pretty much okay couldn’t be described. The girls could only laugh to express their relief. Smiles were everywhere. Rick unlocked the cuffs. The first thing he did was shake Rick’s hand, thanking him as he still felt too weak to speak. He promptly lost consciousness again, but he was alive.

Daryl and Glenn entered the cell, each one comforting their respective girlfriends. Glenn at first wasn’t sure how to react to the news of his relationship with Beth or the fact that she was probably pregnant. Now, he felt perfectly fine with it, giving them a congratulatory smile. Maggie was the same. The others left them be. Carol was still outside, practicing a primitive C-Section on a random female walker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, you guys get a glimpse about what happened to Beth during the time jump, if you've read the journal entries she's written thus far.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watch episodes as I write these chapters. Much of the dialogue is the same, if not very faithful to the show.

“Oh my God, ow. This was a real bad idea,” Beth whispered between kisses to Daryl’s neck. He was moving at their preferred slow and steady speed inside her, their gentle pace. As it turned out, wild aggressive sex wasn’t the best thing in the world most of the time. Taking your time and being easier made it enjoyable, at least for them…or it would be, if Beth’s back wasn’t on the concrete with nothing but a few layers of cloth below her.

Daryl briefly stopped moving and just laughed. “You kiddin’ me, girl? You’re the one who wanted this.”

“I know, I mean we don’t have…privacy in the cell…block.” Her sentence was broken up by her instinctive moans every time Daryl pushed inside of her.

“Maybe we should bring a fuckin’ mattress up here.”

“That’s a good idea actually,” he thrusted harder than normal, drawing a gasp from Beth. “Maybe we could live _here_ instead of the cell block.”

“Put a little nursery over there, some furniture over there? Sounds like the _best_ idea to me.” Daryl moved faster and faster, harder and harder until he was finished inside of her. Somehow, he always knew how to take her along for the ride, even though she used to hear that a woman’s orgasm was as rare as leprechauns. Maybe all it takes is finding the right person who knows how to make you feel good.

Neither one of them said anything. If they did, it would be buzzkill, at least for Daryl, because today is a workday. Beth got up first and dressed in her pants, but in Daryl’s shirt.

“Girl, gimme that back. I don’t wanna dig around for another shirt,” Daryl requested. She took it off and gave it back to him without argument, though she did steal his vest. Once dressed, they came down the ladder and out the door to the guard tower. They were camped out in the one nearest to the exit.

They met Carol, T-Dog and Rick coming out of the prison.

“Hey what are you guys—?” T-Dog started. He stopped himself realizing that there’d be only one reason for the two of them coming in during the morning, with Beth wearing his vest. Beth walked straight past them back to the prison cell to look over her father. Carol flashed her a cutesy smile.

“Have fun last night?” Rick asked dryly.

“Shut up.”

The group didn’t leave him alone for the whole time they were moving the bus and getting their cars in. Carol drove Beth’s car to push the bus out of the way of the main gate. Everything seemed to settle down finally. Hershel was in a steady state of recovery from his amputation. No infections of the bite kind, or generic infections. He was fine and his stump was slowly healing. He still hadn’t been able to get out of bed just yet, with everyone he loved watching over him, keeping him comfortable. The pain seemed to have subsided as well. And now they had enough time and energy to get their cars in and actually do the hard work to clean this place up.

“Alright, let’s get the other car in,” Rick said when all they had was one car left outside. “We’ll park ‘em in the west entry of the yard.”

“Good. Our vehicles parked out here look like a giant vacancy sign,” Daryl commented. “Me and Beth wanted to bring ours in, but we didn’t get the chance.”

“After that, we gotta load up all these corpses so we can burn ‘em.”

“Gonna be a long day,” T-Dog murmured.

“Where’s Glenn and Maggie? We could use the extra hands,” Carol said.

Daryl immediately turned to the guard tower nearest to the prison. “Glenn! Maggie!”

The door opened and a half-dressed Glenn came out. He was still putting his pants on. “Hey! What’s up, guys?”

Nobody could hold back their giggles. Especially considering that Daryl just went through this on a lesser scale, now he had a chance to redirect all the attention to another unfortunate victim.

“You comin’?” he said.

“What?” Glenn asked.

“You comin’?” he repeated. Everyone started giggling and chuckling at their expense, especially as Maggie’s head was bobbing in and out of view in the tower. “Come on, we could use a hand.”

Before anyone could get back to work, T-Dog said, “Hey Rick.”

Axel and Oscar were coming out against the deal that they made with Rick. He went from smiling to menacingly scowling. “Come with me.” He and everyone else came running up the hill. Beth was behind them following.

“That’s close enough,” Rick warned. “We had an agreement.”

“Please, mister. We know that,” Axel pleaded. “We made a deal, but you gotta understand…we can’t live in that place another minute. You follow me? All the bodies—people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There’s ghosts.”

“Why don’t you move the bodies out?” Daryl asked.

“You should be burning them,” T-Dog said.

“We tried.”

“The fences are down on the other side of the far side of the prison,” Oscar told them. “Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. Dropping a body and just running back inside.”

“Look, we had nothing to do with Tomás and Andrew. Nothing. You trying to prove a point, you proved it, bro. We’ll do whatever it takes to be part of your group. Just please, please…don’t make us live in that place.”

“Our deal is not negotiable. You either live in your cell block, or you leave,” Rick decreed.

Beth was visibly distraught and angry with Rick’s inability to have a sense of empathy.

“Told you this was a waste of time,” Oscar said. “They ain’t no different than the pricks who shot up our boys. You have any idea how many friends’ corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw ‘em out, like…These were good guys. Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Tomás and Andrew. We’ve all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I’m not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me…we’ve paid our due—enough that we would rather hit that road than go back into that shithole.”

* * *

Rick locked the pair of prisoners in the in-between of the sliding gates, locking them out, fulfilling exactly what Oscar said.

“Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you?” Rick asked. “They’ll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons. You wanna go back to sleeping with one eye open?”

“Never stopped,” T-Dog said.

“Bring ‘em into the fold,” T-Dog pleaded. “We send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves.”

“I don’t know, Axel seems a little unstable.”

_Describing Axel or Rick?_ Beth thought to herself.

Carol said, “After all we’ve been through? We fought so hard for all this—”

_You fought? Me and Daryl are the ones who cleared this place out._

“—what if they decide to take it?”

The group rambled on and on about what to do. T-Dog was the only one that spoke for them. Beth wanted to, but she wanted to find the right moment to say her own piece. Except, saying that piece would require talking about that painful night in her life. She didn’t want to go back through that, verbally or otherwise. But that night was the reason she believed in Axel and Oscar.

She didn’t notice anything until Daryl spoke. “I get guys like this. Hell, I grew up with them. They’re degenerates but they ain’t psychos. I could’ve been in there just as easy as I’m out here with you guys.”

“This is fucking bullshit.” Beth’s voice tore the air with a quiet and serene high-pitched yet menacing voice, almost unrecognizable as Beth. Unrecognizable except to Daryl. “You all sound like Shane. A bunch of xenophobic fuckheads who’re gonna get everyone killed. Let them in, give them a chance. And if they try anything—”

Rick interrupted her, “What? You can handle yourself against walkers, but what about a full-grown man trying to subdue you? Can you do something about that?”

That was a huge mistake. Her face turned from slightly angry to something else entirely. She still looked like Beth Greene, but her face turned to a solid glare of volcanic rage against Rick. There was a surge of fury so powerful within her it was like a nuclear bomb went off inside of her, something she hadn’t felt in months.

Everyone was visibly unnerved. Daryl was subtly but noticeably freaked out. He tried to touch her to simmer her down a bit, but a single side glance was enough to tell him to back off.

“You have no idea what I have been through or what I have done. If I wanted to, I could kill you, Carl, T-Dog, Glenn and Lori, and you would never be able to stop me.” Her voice was just as dissonantly calm and serene as before. She turned around and walked away without another word.

She stopped and turned to face them. “This isn’t _our_ place, it’s _everyone’s_. This is a place where people can come and start over. This is a place where we can actually build a life for everyone, not just us. We can make this place an island in this ocean of walkers. But we’re never gonna be able to do that if we act like this, throwing people out because we’re afraid they’ll do something. This is a place for civilization to start again, for second chances, maybe redemption for those who seek it.”

She returned to the prison without another word, every single person she left behind stared at her in shock and horror that such an angelic-looking girl had such a dark and violent side to her. Maggie was about to chase after her, but Daryl stopped her.

“You do _not_ want to approach her right now. Let her cool off,” he warned.

“What happened to her out there?” she asked.

“What?”

“I’ve known her since the day she was born, and I’ve _never_ seen her look like that before. Did something happen out there?” Maggie repeated. The others looked at him expectantly.

“I don’t know—”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Maggie quipped, exasperated.

“I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t fuckin’ conscious for it,” he finished. “We were about to head out on the road one night about a month after the snowstorm, me and her like normal. All of a sudden, these assholes ambushed us. They got a hold of her. I tried to fight, but there were a bunch of ‘em fuckers. They beat the shit outta me until I was out cold. When I woke up, I was almost naked, bandaged up…and she was sitting there next to a fire with her shirt all torn…with blood _all over_ her. Her face, her clothes, everything. And she had that thousand-yard stare. Once, I tried to get her to tell me what happened. This right here, that was her reaction. Hell, it took nearly a week for her not to flinch when I touched her. She told me to drop it and leave it alone. So I did. Thought she’d tell me in time. A couple months later, she had her smile back, and I never wanted to see it go away again.”

Maggie buried her face in her hands. Carol and Glenn looked around horrified at the story. T-Dog and Rick both realized the real reason for her determination to give these guys a chance. A lot of what she said wasn’t just about the inmates, but about her. Whatever she did to those men, she wanted to start over and leave it behind, make this whole place about that.

“Oh, what happened to you, Bethy?”

* * *

Beth stopped at the grated door. She took a few moments too cool down a little bit, taking deep breaths, clenching her chest. She hated feeling this way. It was like someone was pouring into her chest. She rarely ever felt so angry in her life. She knew she overreacted to Rick’s comment, because he couldn’t know. But she still wasn’t happy with how he saw her as another dead girl.

To distract herself, she investigated one of the cars that the group brought up. She took a look in the trunk and saw a myriad of various melee weapons that they hadn’t used, or rather she hadn’t seen them use. One item caught her attention: a climbing axe. A red one with a noticeable jut out of its backside. Pretty nasty looking. She liked it and attached it to her pants.

“Beth?” Lori called.

“Yeah?”

“Your dad’s awake. Let’s give him his crutches.”

Beth jumped at the call. Helping her dad was a perfect way to distract herself from the anger until it dissipated. That, and her love for her dad tends to overwhelm whatever negative emotions she might be feeling. The two women found Carl sitting on the stairs cleaning his gun, still smiling with his adorable crush on the older Beth.

Hershel was awake in the bed just like Lori said. “Mornin’ Daddy.” Hershel reached for her and wrapped his arms around her. He reached for the top bunk and pulled himself to sit upright.

“Just take your time,” Lori told him.

“Daddy, don’t push yourself.” She tried to help him, but she had her bow wrapped around her core. It was getting in her way. She handed it to Carl. “Will you please hold onto this?” He took it without complaining.

“What else am I going to do?” he said. “I can’t stand looking up at the bottom of that bunk anymore.”

He got up onto the crutches, nearly losing his balance in the process. After all, he was missing nearly half his leg, his whole center of gravity is kind of thrown off balance at the moment. It took a couple of tiny steps, and then he seemed to get the hang of the crutches.

“Think I’m pretty steady,” he commented, a little bit of pride ringing in his voice.

“That’s a good start. Wanna take a rest?” Lori asked.

“Rest? Let’s go for a little stroll.”

* * *

Outside, Glenn locked the door behind them, leaving Axel and Oscar with a box of food. “There’s enough food in there to last you guys a week. Cut you loose when we get back.” His voice…Beth’s words about this place being for everyone, a chance to rebuild something struck a nerve with him. Who were they going to be if they rejected people, turned them away out of fear? What would that make them?

“Thank you, bro,” Axel said.

Glenn walked away. Oscar quietly mocked Axel for his continued attempts to try and get on these people’s good side. Glenn, Daryl, and Rick headed through the fence, cutting a hole in it so that they can grab what they need without walking all the way around outside the fences.

“Should I take her out?” Glenn asked, referring to a walker across the waterway.

“No,” Rick said.

Daryl shot her himself.

“What’d you do that for?”

“Every walker we just let go is one more that can make a herd. I don’t know about you, but I ain’t willin’ to let that just happen.” Daryl waded across the shallow waterway to retrieve his arrow. Rick couldn’t decide if Daryl was reckless or smart for thinking that way.

“Are we sure we should burn them? Won’t the fire attract more walkers? Maybe we should bury them,” Glenn suggested.

“We’re behind the fence. It’s worth the one-time risk to get rid of them for good. I don’t want to be planting crops in walker-rotted soil,” Rick said. Daryl wanted to comment on how walkers weren’t any different than any other rotting corpse. Especially considering some of the extremes he and Beth took to find food. Not eating a walker but eating deer that’d been chewed on by walkers. They had to do that, and yet they were fine. He didn’t want to have another discussion with Rick.

Back at the main prison, Carol, Maggie and T-Dog worked to organize the cars. The entire courtyard was clean of walker bodies. At the same time, Lori and Beth came out with Hershel and Carl. They were all helping him move around, Lori helping him to keep his balance as he made his way down the stairs. It proved to be a bit more difficult than traversing flat ground.

“You cleared all those bodies out?” Hershel noticed. “It’s starting to look like a place we could really live in.”

“Watch your step. Last thing we need is you falling,” Lori warned as they walked toward the fence.

Daryl was holding the fence open for Rick and Glenn, both of whom were carrying firewood to burn the bodies. “Lookie here.”

“He is one tough son of a bitch,” Glenn commented. “Alright, Hershel!”

“Shh! Keep your cheers down,” Daryl gestured toward the walkers outside the fence attracted to his yelling.

“Oh man, can’t we just have one good day?”

Hershel and the others moved slowly towards the fence. “Ready to race, Hershel?” Carl asked cutely.

“Give me another day, I’ll take you on.” Hershel looked at Carl like a grandson. Beth smiled, looking forward to seeing him give the same look to her baby. Even if she wasn’t having one now, she’d have one at some point. Maggie finally spotted her daddy coming out with the crutches, and smiled, almost shedding a couple of tears of joy. Carol and T-Dog looked at him with the same proud eyes.

Things were finally settling down, although there was still one last fight for Beth: the fight to keep Axel and Oscar here. She wasn’t going to give up and she was _never_ going to let Rick come back into her life and corrupt everything. She had faith in other people but knew the dangers of them as well. She believed in them.

She had no proof or evidence that they were good people, but Rick had no evidence that they were violent people like Tomás. Believing in the absence of proof is called faith, and she had faith that the two of them would prove valuable allies and eventually be members of the family.

However, Beth took one look at Maggie and immediately was overwhelmed with guilt. She walked over to her.

“Mag…I’m sorry about what I said earlier,” Beth said. "That was _s_ _o_ wrong of me."

“It’s fine.”

"No it isn't." No way it would be that easy for Maggie to forgive. Unless... “Daryl told you?”

No response. Maggie looked to the ground.

“It’s okay.” Beth hoped that Maggie would look her in the eye.

“You know, the night after we lost the farm, Rick rallied us, telling us that there had to be a place where we could build a life for each other. He said he knew it was out there, but we had to find it,” Maggie told her, looking in her eyes. “Kind of like what you said.”

Beth wasn’t sure of what to take away from this.

“I need you to know that—”

“Walkers!”

The word made everyone jump. The sight of a bunch of walkers flooding the prison yard made everyone freak out. Several of them. Where the fuck did they come from?

Daryl, Rick and Glenn looked on in horror. The former two sprinted down the path of the prison’s outer rim, trying to get to the courtyard. Glenn stayed behind to close up the hole in the fence, but he had the key with him.

“LORI!” Rick screamed.

“Beth!” Carl tossed Beth her bow. Everyone else in the courtyard except for Hershel got out their guns and started shooting down the walkers. Beth immediately took to protecting her father from harm as he moved to hide in the fenced-in storage area.

“Daddy! Go! I gotcha!” Beth demanded.

Everyone was shooting down walkers while Beth stayed with her father, helping him up the stairs. She didn’t notice the walker about to grab her.

“Beth! Behind you!”

Beth took out an arrow and skewered the walker straight through the eye. She picked up her bow and kept shooting down walkers. Hershel used one of his crutches to keep the gate shut, and watched as his daughters fought back.

Maggie took Lori and Carl and went back into the prison, maybe they could get some more weapons to deal with these walkers. Unfortunately, there were walkers inside the cell block, too, forcing the trio to head into the tombs.

“That gate is open!” T-Dog said. Beth and Carol only saw it after T-Dog pointed it out. The gate that sealed off the walkers from the rest of the courtyard was open. The walkers from inside the unexplored part of the prison were loose.

T-Dog, Beth and Carol all shot their way through the walkers until it was clear enough for T to get to and close the gate. He used his belt to make sure it stayed shut. Carol and Beth stood together, opening a door where they could get away. Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the walker coming up behind him in all the commotion. It bit into his shoulder, tearing deep into his flesh.

“No!” Carol screamed. Beth shot the walker off him, but it was too late. T was bit. He was out of bullets and he came running to the women.

“You two, go!” Beth commanded as she shot more walkers. She was running out of her arrows.

“Not without you!” T demanded.

“I’ll be fine, just go!”

They listened and headed inside. She stayed out to stand against the walkers. She used her last arrow and then took out her machete, ready for a fight. She ran straight past them to get some more room, killing three walkers in the process by beheading them. Hershel shouted warnings towards her about any walkers coming up on her blind spot or when she was occupied with killing one. There were so many of them, it was unbelievable. And the worst part being that she was all by herself.

Rick, Glenn and Daryl finally reached the main gate. “Beth! We’re comin’!” Daryl screamed. Rick got the gate open. All three of them ran forward to help her clear out the rest of the walkers.

“What the hell happened?!” Rick screamed.

“The gate was open!” Beth told him.

“Where’s Lori, Carl, everyone else?”

“Maggie led Lori and Carl into C block,” Hershel told him.

“T got bit!” Beth said.

“Anyone else?” Rick asked her.

“I don’t think so.”

“Hershel, stay put,” Rick demanded.

Glenn came running up to them after investigating the gate. “Those chains didn’t break on their own. Someone took an axe or cutters to them.”

Rick quickly glared at Axel and Oscar who were slowly coming up behind the gate.

“You think they did it?” Glenn asked.

“Who else?”

The alarms across the prison suddenly started going off, attracting every walker around the prison. It wasn’t Axel and Oscar who turned that alarm on. Couldn’t have been. Unless the alarm could be turned on remotely, which Beth doubted.

“Oh, you gotta be kiddin’ me!” Daryl yelled.

Beth immediately ran up to Axel and Oscar. Daryl noticed and immediately ran up with her, his weapon trained on them if they tried anything. Glenn and Rick used their guns to shoot out the megaphone speakers around the courtyard, but there were still several that were going off around the prison.

“What’s goin’ on?” Beth asked them loudly.

“It has to be the backup generators,” Oscar said.

“How do you turn them on?”

“There’s three that’s connected to a diesel tank. Each one controls a certain part of the prison, but the hacks shut them all off when the prison was overrun.”

Rick jumped in. “Can someone open the main gates electronically with full power?”

“I only worked in there a few days, I guess it might be possible,” Oscar answered.

“Come with us!”

The group managed to clear out C block. There five walkers alone in the common area. Beth ran into the cell block itself, where Rick was calling for his family.

“There was five of ‘em in there,” Daryl told him.

“There were four in here, but no sign of Lori or any of them.”

Beth ran up to the second level to get more arrows and a pistol for herself. She discarded her machete in favor of the climbing axe which was probably better for enclosed spaces like the tombs. She headed back down the stairs.

“They must have been pushed back into the prison,” Glenn pointed out the obvious.

“Somebody is playing games!”

“Rick!” Beth said. “You killed Andrew and Tomás, but did you see ‘em die?”

“He fuckin’ buried his machete into Tomás’s skull,” Daryl said.

“What about Andrew?” Beth asked.

“I locked him in a courtyard full of walkers,” Rick answered.

“Did you see him die?” Beth enunciated.

“I heard him get torn apart,” Rick said.

“Did you see him die?! Yes or no!”

“No!” Rick finally answered.

“You fuckin’ idiot. You kill someone, you make sure that they’re dead!”

Rick stopped the argument. “We don’t got time for this. We gotta split up and look for the others. Whoever finds the generators first, shut ‘em down!”

* * *

The groups ended up being Rick, Oscar, Daryl, Beth and Glenn and Axel. They split up into the prison. The former four ended up finding the generator room first, though no thanks to a bunch of walkers chasing after them. Everyone dove into the room, and Daryl held it shut against the onslaught of walkers. Oscar helped him while Rick went to the generators.

Beth looked around for anything they could use to barricade the door but there was nothing. Nothing that she could move anyway. Everything in the room was way too heavy for her to move by herself.

She got out her gun as a precaution if those doors were to open. Fifteen fast shots from a gun was a safer bet than her trusty bow right now.

“How do you shut these down?” Rick screamed.

“Go help him, I got this!” Daryl said to Oscar. Beth took his place helping to keep the door shut. The pressure was immense. It was like they were trying to hold back the weight of the ocean behind this one door.

Oscar shut off the diesel tank. Out of nowhere, Andrew came out with an axe, trying to hit Rick. The only person he hit was Oscar, and that was with the butt end of the axe, leaving him relatively unharmed, but stunned.

Beth and Daryl were helpless trying to keep the door shut, unable to help Rick fight Andrew. Beth hated that she was right that Andrew somehow managed to live and do all this. All the more reason that legit proven threats must be eliminated without question. Not suspected threats, known ones.

Andrew pressed the axe against Rick who grasped it and pushed back. Rick was the stronger man and pushed Andrew around, banging him into everything around the room, at least until Andrew hit with the handle of the axe, knocking him back. Rick attempted to pull out his gun and shoot him, but Andrew kicked it out of his hands. The pair wrestled for control of the gun.

Beth and Daryl were forced to let the door open and kill a few walkers as it became clear they weren’t going to be able to hold the door shut against the onslaught of walkers. Could be worse, considering that Beth and Carl cleared out a whole lot of them before. Beth almost lost her climbing axe in the process, but she managed to get it out of the walker’s head.

Andrew managed to get hold of the axe and was just about to kill Rick. But Oscar threw a small empty barrel at Andrew, stunning him. He picked up the revolver and pointed it in the direction of Andrew and Rick. He originally aimed at Rick, who tried to wordlessly keep him from shooting him.

“Shoot him! We can take back this prison,” Andrew pressured.

Oscar didn’t.

“What you waiting for? Do it! It’s our house shoot him!”

Oscar fired a bullet but didn’t shoot Rick. He shot Andrew in the head, blowing his brains onto the shelf behind him. He didn’t lower the gun though and kept it aimed. Out of his sight, Daryl was ready to kill Oscar. Beth grabbed him to keep him from doing so, firmly believing that Oscar would do the right thing.

He did. He turned the gun over and handed it back to Rick. Rick then shut down the generators and the alarm blaring throughout the prison.

Afterwards, the four of the went back through the prison to look for the others. As they walked through the tombs, Glenn and Axel happened to find them. They had no time for the pleasantries of reunions. They still had to find the others.

They kept going through the dark corridors, illuminated only by flashlights. Around a corner, there were two walkers feasting on a corpse. Rick shot the walkers to death and they all investigated the body. It was gnawed to the both, almost no skin left. They all just knew that it was T. It was T-Dog. He was gone. Rick looked like he wanted to break down, and Glenn couldn’t look at it.

Daryl noticed Carol’s headscarf near the door. There weren’t any signs of another body nearby, but…that meant she probably was still walking around as something that used to be her. He didn’t want to see if her dead walking body was in there. He only took the headscarf.

All that was left was to find Lori, Maggie and Carl. The group of six ran out into the courtyard, finding Hershel outside his safety cage. He was all alone, save for all the bodies everywhere.

“Daddy!”

“You didn’t find them?” he said.

Rick said, “We thought maybe they came back out here?”

“T? Carol?”

“They didn’t make it,” Daryl answered.

“That doesn’t mean the others didn’t. We’re going back. Daryl, Beth, Glenn you come with—”

His orders stopped when they heard a baby crying. A baby…

Out of C block came Maggie and Carl, both of whom had blood all over their hands, alongside a newborn baby. Maggie and Carl…only them. Lori wasn’t with them, but a baby was. The traumatized and quivering look on Maggie’s face, the dejected emotionless look on Carl’s face…it said it all. But no one wanted to believe it.

“Where—where is she? Where is she?” Rick stammered with a breaking voice. He was about to go in to find her.

“No. Rick, no!” Maggie reached for him and stopped him, barely keeping herself from breaking down completely.

Rick wasn’t so strong. He immediately broke down into a heap on the floor, crying and sobbing. Not just out of grief, but out of regret just the same. Regret that he never reconciled with her. He collapsed onto the ground, almost unrecognizable as the brooding and nigh-ruthless leader of a band of survivors.

Maggie broke down in Glenn’s arms. The latter remained strong for his girlfriend.

Beth looked on in utter horror. Not just horror for what Lori’s last moments were like, but the fact that she herself in a matter of time will find herself in the same situation. Less than year, she may have to live. And that horrified her.

Beth tenderly touched her stomach as the realization set in.

Lori was gone. Died by childbirth just as she suspected she might...and Beth could follow in her footsteps. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter than usual.

Rick?” Daryl crouched in front of Rick. “Rick? You with me?”

The man was only staring off into the distance, completely cut off it seemed. It didn’t even look like he was able to see anything. Or even hear for that matter. He did his best to get his attention, but he was clearly not in there.

Maggie handed the baby to Carl. It was wrapped in a blue shirt. Looked like the one Carl was wearing earlier.

“What are we gonna feed it? We got anything a baby can eat?” Daryl asked.

Hershel examined the baby. “The good news is she looks healthy. But she needs formula. And soon, or she won’t survive.”

“Nope. No way. Not her. We ain’t losin’ nobody else. I’m goin’ for a run,” Daryl said.

“I’ll back you up,” Maggie volunteered.

“I’ll go, too,” Glenn said.

“Okay, think where we’re goin’. Beth?”

Beth didn’t move.

“Beth?” Daryl repeated. Then he noticed the way she was touching her stomach, and the horrified look on her face. “Hey.” He touched her arm, pulling her towards him.

“I guess in a year, I’ll probably get what I wanted back at the farm,” Beth muttered sounding resigned.

“Don’t think like that, girl. You’re strong. Lori gave birth to Carl through C-Section. That meant it was already likely this was gonna happen. If this happened all the time before modern medicine, we would’ve gone extinct quickly, but we’re still here.” Daryl’s speech was enough to get her spirits back up.

“Okay. Okay. What…what did you want to tell me?”

“Kid just lost his mom, and his dad ain’t doin’ so hot,” Daryl said after a moment, trying to remember what he wanted to say.

“I’ll look out for him, don’t you worry.”

Rick stood up, grabbed the axe he dropped, and stormed off into the prison. What was he going to do? Probably slaughter a whole lot of walkers. Maybe. Wasn’t much else to do in there. But whatever the case may be, it’d be worth it to stay out of his way and away from him right now.

“You come back to me,” Beth commanded.

“When have I never?” Daryl asked. He kissed her before leaving with the other two.

Glenn, Daryl and Maggie spoke about what to do. Glenn suggested, “There’s a Piggly Wiggly on 85.”

“No, the baby section’s been cleared,” Maggie said. “Lori asked me to keep an eye out, I haven’t had much luck.”

“There any place that hasn’t been completely looted?”

“There are signs for a shopping center just north of here,” Glenn said.

“There’s too much debris on the road. A car will never get through that,” Maggie reminded him.

“I can take one of you,” Daryl said. His bike could get through it, but obviously it could only carry up to two people. Maggie quickly volunteered.

“Maggie, you don’t have to, especially after all this, I’ll go,” Glenn offered.

“I have to. For Lori.”

Glenn gave in to her, understanding her prerogative, and feeling that he’d want to do the same thing. He gave her a kiss. “I love you. Be safe.”

* * *

_Everything’s different now. Everything. I can’t believe today is still today. I can’t believe today happened. This morning, I had some nice alone time with Daryl and I went back to check on my recovering dad. And then everything just went downhill from there._

_First, there was the Axel and Oscar conflict. I’m adamant about having them be a part of the group, but paranoid Rick thought that they’d be dangerous, and he had everyone else thinking the same thing. No one seems to question him. I get it, because I barely question Daryl. I question me more than I question him._

_Then, the walkers. They all came out of nowhere. Not really. One of the prisoners, the one that was obviously Tomás’s bitch, destroyed the peace we made here. He sabotaged our defenses, tried to draw more walkers in, and then finally he tried to kill Rick. Oscar proved his allegiance to us by killing Andrew and giving the gun to Rick._

_Then there’s ~~T-Dog~~ Theodore Douglas. I don’t know why I remember that. I think I only heard it a couple of times. I guess it doesn’t matter. I remember him as T-Dog, or Theodore Douglas. That’s what I want to put on his grave. There was barely anything left of him. He was all chewed up badly._

_Carol. We didn’t find her body, just her headscarf and some blood leading through a door. We don’t know what happened to her or where her body is. In fact, I’m not sure if she’ll have a body left. A part of me wants to believe she’s alive. But I don’t think we’ll get lucky with people twice. I want to believe it, but I can’t. Maybe we’ll find her body and give her a proper burial, put her to rest._

_And finally, Lori. Lori…the one that I’d worried about the most because of her baby. The baby I’m holding in my left arm right now. I always thought that as long as she was still alive, there was still hope. New life. And now that new life is here, at the cost of hers. I don’t know what happened to Lori, but it was obviously not pleasant. At least she had a healthy girl, not a stillbirth like she feared._

_And I feel horrible, because I told her, damn-near promised her that she’d be fine, and she’d get to hold her baby girl. And yet, she’s dead now. She’s gone. If I had to guess, she might not have even had a chance to hold her baby. This baby has to live. Everything she did, everything Lori did to keep this baby alright can’t have been for nothing. Lori’s death can’t be in vain._

_I don’t know what to think anymore. I always knew, as all women do, that childbirth is risky. But today…that risk has become a cold reality. Lori, a woman I had just spoken to earlier today is gone from this world, never to be found or seen again. I just had to face that horrible truth that I might be dead within a year._

_This baby in my arms is the only good thing that happened today. Hopefully, Daryl and Maggie will get back in time with the formula for her. They only have a couple hours of light left. They better hurry and get back. If this baby dies…_

Beth couldn’t bring herself to write anything else, not after all the hope she had that this baby would be able to have a real life in this world. She closed her notebook and focused every bit of attention in her being on the baby. This little girl in her arms. A new life in the world of the dead.

“Hey, cutie. I’m your Auntie Beth.” She swaddled and swayed the little baby. She couldn’t stop crying out. She had to be hungry, so hungry. Daryl needed to hurry. “When your old enough, I’ll tell you all about your mama.”

“I put her down. My mom,” Carl told her.

Beth paused. She knew that he was present but didn’t think that he did. “Why’d you do it instead of Maggie?”

“She’s my mom. It had to be me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can I hold her?” Beth gave him the little baby. She was still feeling a little bit overwhelmed by everything, and she was surprised that young Carl was so calm after all this. Her father went by, going outside. Beth followed him outside. They saw Glenn talking with Axel and Oscar over the graves he was digging. He gave them his shovel and walked up to Beth and Hershel.

“Rick?”

“Still inside,” Hershel answered.

“Okay, I’ll get him.”

“Are we sure that’s a good idea, right now?” Beth asked.

“I have to try.” Glenn looked back at the prisoners. “A third of our group in one day.”

“Cause of one asshole,” Hershel muttered. Beth was too upset to joke about his hypocritical use of vulgar language.

“Part of me wishes that we killed all the prisoners on sight,” Glenn confessed.

“All of them? You can thank Rick for all this. All he had to do was make sure Andrew was dead. None of this would have happened otherwise. It doesn’t take a lot to make sure someone’s dead,” Beth quipped.

“Hey,” Hershel said. “Let’s simmer down the blame game for now.”

“Okay.” She looked out over the perimeter and saw the walkers. She walked through the open gate and down to the perimeter.

“Where are you going?” Glenn asked.

“To deal with those walkers.”

“There’s no need.”

“Didn’t we just learn today what happens when we don’t eliminate known threats?” Beth retorted. Glenn had nothing to say. “Thought so.” She went down and killed the walkers. She’d have to clear out the bodies later. There was no point in doing that right now.

As she killed the walkers across the perimeter, Glenn and Hershel continued talking. The former admitted, “It’s wrong, but I’d trade any number of people for one of ours any day.”

Understandable philosophy, but still kind of cold. Sacrifice a bunch of people to save one that you love? Seemed like you’d lose them either way. One, they die. Or the other, they survive, but they never look at you the same way again. Which one do you choose?

Beth killed the last perimeter walker that was against the fence. As she did, she still felt an inescapable anguish for one thing, something she didn’t write down in her notebook even. The fact that she said she could kill the whole group, and there was nothing they could do to stop her. And then, not even an hour later, three of those people were dead. It was like something listened to her, and delivered on her threat for her, partially.

It was irrational, wholly irrational, but it was still there. She couldn’t shake that feeling off. That irrational guilt for this. She knew it wasn’t her fault, but she only knew that in her mind. In her heart, she felt like it was.

* * *

_It’s been a long time since they left, Daryl and Maggie. I hope they’ll be back soon, cause if not, the baby won’t make it. She’s been crying for like forever. We’re already dropping like flies now. If she dies…that’s it. It’ll destroy us. Especially Daryl. It’ll wreck him to pieces._

_I can’t stop thinking about my horrendous behavior today. How I said that I could kill so many of the group and they could never stop me. Even if it was literally true, in that I could do it literally, I could never bring myself to do that at all. I couldn’t. The first time…all those months ago. That was because they were strangers, threatening strangers. If I didn’t kill them, they would have killed me and Daryl._

_I have to tell someone. Start somewhere. Maybe I can start with you. If I’m honest with you, I can be honest with them, and Daryl. They deserve to know, especially Daddy and Maggie. They deserve it after I made such a caustic threat against them._

_It was just a normal day hunting. We needed food so we went out in the woods, me with my new handmade bow from Daryl, and him with his trusty crossbow. We were_

“Beth.” Maggie’s voice jolted her from her book. Took her a moment to realize and put together what Maggie wanted, and then she remembered the baby. She quickly got up and helped prepare the formula and fill up the bottle.

As the two Greene girls did so, Daryl took up the baby in his arms. As Carl gave him the baby, he shushed and cooed her, cradling her like he’d done it many times before. Swooping her up and holding her like he had already taken care of children before…it was kind of odd, but also nice. It was a preview to how he’d be with their own baby. Beth handed him the bottle of freshly made formula. The baby accepted the bottle, quickly suckling and gobbling her first meal.

“Come on. Come on,” Daryl encouraged. He chuckled, seeing the baby eating, and out of relief that they did it. They got her formula, what she needed. They saved the little baby.

“She got a name yet?” he asked.

Carl shook his head. “Not yet. But I was thinking, maybe Sophia. There’s Carol, too. And Andrea. Amy. Jacqui. Patricia. Or…Lori. I don’t know.”

Everyone looked around, thinking about these names. Maggie and Beth thought about their lost Patricia. Especially Beth, as Patricia was ripped straight out of her hands, given the same death that Beth feared. The others thought about Lori, Andrea, Sophia, Carol, Amy, and Jacqui, all old friends from that first camp outside Atlanta.

Daryl turned his attention back to the baby. “Yeah…you like that? Huh? Little ass-kicker? Right? That’s a good name, right?”

Smiles went everywhere, little giggles at Daryl’s pet nickname for the baby. A very Daryl pet name. Beth was gonna have a talk with him about that for their baby. He wasn’t gonna be giving him or her that kind of nickname on her watch…maybe.

“Little ass-kicker. You like that, huh? You like that sweetheart?”

Daryl had never spoken with such a soft voice to anyone except for Beth. Even then, he still had an audible grit and grind, tough-guy voice with her, partly because she preferred his voice like that. But with…Little Ass-Kicker, his voice was nothing but soft and soothing. Beth was witnessing their future. Her future with Daryl.

Within time, the child between his arms won’t just be Little Ass-Kicker, but their own baby. Their own Little Ass-Kicker. The difference might be that he wouldn’t be feeding him or her formula, because Beth had every intention of surviving the birth of her baby and sharing every experience with Daryl. Maybe…with even more than one child with enough time.

Imagine that…a life here, where children could be born and raised and not have to worry about surviving from one day to the next the way they all did over this last year. All the losses suffered today, and yet there was still a little bit of light left, a little bit of light in the form of a little baby girl.

And then that feeling came back. That need to tell everyone the truth about what happened that fateful night during the months-long separation, about a month after that snowstorm. But this was not the place to tell them. She needed to wait until the proper moment.

* * *

Daryl walked out the next morning in the light sun. He walked out into the prison yard, right over to the graves. One of them was marked with a headscarf. There was no body underneath the dug-out dirt, just a cross with her headscarf. It was the best they could do for her in the absence of a body.

Daryl placed a single flower on the grave for Carol Peletier. A Cherokee rose. The same flower he told her about to keep her hope alive for her daughter’s survival, hope that turned out to all be in vain. He silently said goodbye to her and went back to the prison where he found Beth sitting with Maggie in the common area.

“Sit with us, please?” she requested.

He did so. “Something wrong?”

She nodded. “I wanna tell you everything about that night.”

Daryl froze.

“You need to know.”

And so, she told them everything that happened.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discover why Beth wants the prison to become a place of redemption for all, especially herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter, italics designates Beth's narration.

_If you remember, this past winter was extremely harsh. Food wasn’t easy to come by either, at least for us._

Beth’s eyes opened to the cold morning light. The snow was long gone from the ground, but the ground was still practically frozen. Cuddling together indoors next to a tiny fire was the only way that the lived through the freezing temperatures. Good thing that they had one another, lest they could have truly frozen to death in the constant cold of the Georgia winter night.

She happened to glance in the mirror.

_What did I see? I saw just another girl._

Daryl was the perfect man to do that. He was like a furnace, especially in the cold. Somehow, he always managed to stay warm even in the cold. Sometimes, Beth suspected that had something to do with something hard pressing against her back that she sometimes woke up to feeling.

She reluctantly stood up, her stomach rumbling and her throat as dry as the Sahara Desert. She took a drink of water, being careful not to take up too much and leave some for Daryl. It felt good, like a wildfire in her throat was extinguished. And now for the real problem: her hunger.

They had to go hunting. No other choice. Find a bunch of squirrels, possums, anything that wasn’t hibernating. They had to do something before they lost their strength. They had enough food left for only today, and that was it.

The absence of Beth alerted Daryl. He sat up and looked at her. “Hey.”

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Beth said. “God I’m fuckin’ hungry.”

“Yeah, me too, girl.”

_We hadn’t found anything good in a week. Kind of a horrible streak for us, considering that our food was already running low enough as it was. If we didn’t act fast, we wouldn’t have enough strength to act at all._

Beth took the last remaining bits of their food and cooked it over a tiny fire. The pair shared the food, each one eager to share their food with the others. Might have been a little bit foolish, but it was nonetheless how much they cared for each other.

After they ate, they got whatever stuff they had with them, all their remaining supplies. Beth tested out her bow again, practicing with it. She’d been getting the hang of it, but she still had a lot to learn and knew it. But every time she used this thing, she could feel herself getting stronger with it, more comfortable, and almost no shaking.

Daryl checked on her posture and everything. He stood opposite of her and arranged her body to be most efficient, how to position every muscle in her body from the stance of her feet to the angle of her neck. He didn’t have much in the way of archery training, but he knew how to hold a bow and what to do with one.

It was yet another intimate moment, the way he confidently touched her body, looked at her. He knew every part of her body by this point. He knew how she moved, the little things. Like the way she tended to tap her fingers, evidence of her piano skill. The way she tended to twist her back and scratch the inside of her thumb with her index finger when she was nervous. The way she often held her drawing elbow too low, and how that was the only major flaw in her stance.

“You’re really good with this thing,” Daryl said.

“I practice. All I got is time, now. Might as well use it.”

They smiled at one another.

_If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, it’s because that was the last time I felt like me. At least for a while. I felt like a normal girl, like the girl I saw in the mirror._

“Where are we gonna go? We’ve hunted out a lotta this place.” Beth and Daryl examined the map of the county.

“Well, we can swing back around, head north. I don’t think that herd’s moved a bit. One good thing about the cold,” Daryl said.

“Let’s hope so,” Beth muttered. “Cause we can’t keep goin’ like this. We need to find a constant supply of food, somethin’ that’ll last like the mansion. Last us long enough to get us through a couple more weeks.”

Beth was nervous. They lost the mansion for one reason, and that was because they ran out of food and couldn’t find more to replace it. They had no choice but to leave it behind, alongside the warm baths and the cold drinks. It was nice while it lasted, and it kept them safe from the snowstorm, allowed them to grow together, and where Beth finally managed to conquer the demons that kept telling her that she was worthless and useless.

Daryl was nervous just the same. He was better at hiding it, but Beth could see past the trademark neutral scowl expression. However, with their time and options limited, they took the chance. They said goodbye to this rotting rundown building and hit the road, riding off into the morning twilight.

_The ride over to that part of the forest was great. I mean, it felt amazing. The wind around us, the nice feel of riding the bike, it was a nice thing. Had I known that would be the last time that I’d feel that way for a long time, I would’ve asked you to keep going._

This area was unfamiliar, but it didn’t take long to spot tracks for something. Daryl gestured for Beth to come closer to investigate the tracks. “What do you think these are?”

Beth examined them. She looked at the shape of the tracks. It had a hoof-like look to it, except they were split in two large sections, and the pattern of the tracks was consistent with something on four legs, not to mention how the tracks often interspersed from slow deliberate steps to fast ones. The steps didn’t overlap. “It’s a mature deer.”

“Good,” Daryl said. “Let’s go find it.”

_I was proud of myself for that. That was the first time I looked at animal tracks and could identify them. Every day, I wonder what would’ve happened if we hadn’t found those tracks._

Beth was right. It was a deer. Not just any kind of deer, but a nice majestic buck. Given the time of year, his antlers were barely hanging on. It looked like they’d drop off any second now, but he was clearly mature and strong. Perfect for meat.

Beth and Daryl both positioned themselves downwind of the buck, not wanting to accidentally give themselves away by their smell. They waited patiently until they saw an opportunity as the buck moved out of the path of a large tree, exposing itself to the hunters.

Their aim was true as Beth and Daryl fired in unison. Beth’s large arrow and Daryl’s smaller bolt swept and chopped through the air. Both struck the deer near his front half, where his vital organs were. As expected, the deer scurried away, but fatally injured with two arrows.

Beth and Daryl tracked the deer from his gradually slowing and sluggish tracks. By the time they found the deer, he was barely moving, desperately trying to escape his hunters. One final arrow from Beth and the deer collapsed, unable to move any more. Beth pitied the dying buck, but she had long since gotten past feeling guilty for hunting them when needed.

_Still, a little part of me felt bad for the buck. I guess I could never get rid of that part of me. Thing is, that was the last time I would feel guilty for a kill._

The couple enjoyed some cooked-up venison. It was the first good meal they’d had in a bit. It was almost overwhelming to their stomachs to have so much food.

“Nice job trackin’ that buck,” Daryl commented. “Who was the hunter in your family? Otis? I bet he’d be proud.”

Beth looked at him surprised. “I didn’t think you even knew about him.”

“What are you talkin’ about? I went to his funeral.”

“Yeah,” Beth commented. “It’s just that, then, you just seemed so distant. I didn’t think you’d remember that, let alone his name.”

Daryl scoffed.

“You know, he used to play the guitar all the time. Me and Patricia, we loved it. I’d sit around for hours just listenin’ to him. He sounded like a dyin’ cat when he sang though. That was my job,” Beth said.

He chuckled. “I doubt anybody could sing as bad as my brother.”

“I wish we could’ve found out.”

He smiled. “Gotta take a piss.”

“Nice subject change.” Beth turned away from him as he headed off into the treeline. She got out her notebook, and she started to think about what she could write. There wasn’t much to write about. Especially since the last month was uneventful, save that they had to leave the mansion behind. The last couple weeks had been utterly monotonous. Nothing came to her.

Even the sex had been a little repetitive and boring. Whenever they’d done it, it’d mostly been him and her just getting their clothes enough to get to the good stuff, and a few thrusts and finger touches. That, and trying to keep their clothes from smelling like cum, hers or his.

The sound of a branch breaking close by got her attention. The absence of a walker growl to accompany it alarmed her. She got out her bow, looking out in the direction, looking for what made the noise. The fact that she couldn’t see it didn’t help any.

She heard another one behind her, but it was just Daryl coming back. “What’s goin’ on?”

“I thought I heard somethin’.”

Beth didn’t let up a single inch. She kept her guard up, as did Daryl. However, there were no more breaking branches or anything else, no sign of anything else around them. They were the only ones out here.

The couple finished eating what they could. It wasn’t like they could store that much meat. They ate the good nutritious parts, filled themselves as best they could, stored what they could and preserve and headed back.

Beth kept looking back, feeling like there was something off. Daryl wasn’t comfortable either, but he managed to keep from seeming paranoid.

“Come on, let’s just get the fuck outta here. Find somewhere to stay for the night. I think there’s a little house we can stay for the night.”

_We didn’t get the chance to._

A bunch of guys came out of the trees, all of them brandishing weapons. Only two of them were carrying guns, but they were strong ones, the kind that could blow holes in your bodies. These brutes were all dressed in dark, dirty, tattered clothing. Their skin was filthy, and their teeth looked like they’d been knocked out from constant fighting.

They were all smiling at the couple like violent predators. Daryl and Beth knew that they stood no chance against the group, those guns were way too much for them to fight against. They both knew their only chance was to avoid complete provocation.

“On the ground,” said the biggest guy, one of the ones with a gun. He had a noticeable Russian, or at least Eastern European accent. Beth was the first to drop her weapon. Daryl was far more hesitant and reluctant to do the same. They both knew what these men fully intended to do.

_I just hoped that being compliant meant that we’d hopefully get a chance to get outta there alive._

The big group closed in around them, all of them looking at them…not at them, at Beth. Their eyes were solely focused on her. The big Russian guy put his gun away and reached for Beth. Daryl immediately punched him.

“Don’t you fuckin’ touch her!”

The other men grabbed him and took him away.

“No! No! Please don’t hurt him!” Beth pleaded.

The big Russian pulled her away by her shirt and her hair, yanking her towards the trees. She tried to resist, but this guy had over five inches and at least thirty pounds on her. He could probably knock out her teeth with a love tap.

She could only watch hopelessly as the other men started to punch Daryl. He fought back against them, trying to struggle with everything that he had. But even he couldn’t fight back against ruthless burly men all around him. They swiftly overpowered him. The other one with a gun tried to shoot him, but the others stopped him, wanting to draw out his pain, it seemed.

The big Russian pushed her against a large tree off the road, muttering something that Beth couldn’t understand. However, she could still hear the undertone of lust and sexual domination within him, nothing like the kind Daryl had. This wasn’t pleasing it was horrifying. It nearly made Beth throw up.

His hands traveled up and down her body, scratching into her torn clothes to her skin below. The cold was forgotten, with nothing but this urge to vomit and this horrendous horror replacing her sense of cold. His hands traveled further down her skin and clothes until he was at her pants, inching his way closer to her groin.

Beth kneed him in the balls and run, but it failed miserably. Not just failed, but backfired. “A fighter, I like the ones who fight. Makes it last longer.”

His mouth covered with facial hair went straight to her neck. It felt like a rough carpet was scratching holes into her neck. Not to mention, feeling his breath on her made her cringe. It was getting harder and harder to avoid throwing up from all of this. His hands started touching her again.

And then she heard the loud grunting from Daryl. She heard him groaning loudly, still fighting back as best as he could. Beth’s horror shot from ten to the stars, realizing that he was likely going to be dead in seconds.

_The moment I realized that, something happened to me. Everything I felt, the sorrow, the self-pity, the fear, the disgust, it all just…went away. And it was all replaced by this wrath that I’d never felt before. I never felt so viciously enraged. And when that happened, that’s when I just acted. I didn’t think. Because I had to save me and I had to save you, Daryl._

Beth sunk her teeth into the big Russian’s neck. She buried her teeth into the flesh, sinking her teeth deeper and deeper until she could feel the major blood vessels in his neck pulsing against her teeth. She summoned an inhuman strength and ripped the flesh from his neck, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.

The blood spurted from his neck everywhere, and his eyes were opened wide, so shocked he was that it was like he didn’t actually feel the wound. He instinctively grabbed his wound. Beth dropped him to the ground, where his eyes rapidly became blank and glassy. He was gone.

With an emotionless face, Beth grabbed his gun and ran back out onto the road. Those men were still beating Daryl.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!”

She quickly fired in their direction, but she still wasn’t good with a gun as she was with a bow. She missed, but the gunfire scared the guys. The other one with a gun tried to shoot her, but he missed too. Beth fired at him and didn’t, hitting him the chest. Another shot got him straight in the head.

The men ran away into the woods. Beth moved straight to Daryl.

“No, no, no, Daryl.” Beth checked his neck, finding a pulse. But he was beaten so badly, with bruises everywhere across his face. She checked his core, finding bruises from their fists and feet. She touched him everywhere, but thankfully, it seemed like there wasn’t anything broken. She could save him. But she couldn’t carry him. The bike was her only chance.

She took the bloodied jacket off of the guys who had the guns, and tore their clothes to make something that she could use to tie Daryl to her for the ride. She took their ammo and the other gun as well as their own weapons.

Beth managed to get Daryl up onto the bike, using the torn clothes to tie his feet above the ground and him to her. She got the bike started and got going down the road.

_It was like I was riding that bike with a concrete slab hanging off me._

She went down the first driveway she saw, going slowly until she found the house at the end of it. It was intact, if a bit filthy and rundown. She got Daryl off her, and he ended up landing with a heavy thud. Beth ran to the house and thankfully the door was open and unlocked. She dragged Daryl inside with every bit of strength that she had, desperately trying to get her boyfriend and the only remaining human in her life to safety…whatever constituted that.

She made a sweep throughout the house and then placed Daryl next to the fireplace. She ran back outside and grabbed some wood and any remaining dried brush that wasn’t wet from snowmelt back to the house and got a fire started. She ran back to the bike and took what limited medical supplies they had up to the house. She looked around the house and found a small first aid kit, the best thing that she could do.

She took what she could and went back to Daryl. She took off most of his clothes, leaving him in only a pair of boxers. She couldn’t do anything about the bruises, but she bandaged and cleaned whatever gashes she could. His legs were covered in bruises just the same.

_I don’t know how long we were there. I remember that I had to leave multiple times to get more firewood. Every time I did, I thought I’d come back and you’d be dead. You were wheezin’, and I didn’t know if I could save you._

Beth sat faithfully by her comatose lover. And then she heard voices outside.

“The girl’s here. That’s their bike,” one voice said.

“She killed Boris and Mark. This ain’t worth the trouble man. Let’s just get out and go,” said another.

“I ain’t going anywhere until we find and kill those fuckers.”

_I just remember that same wrath coming back. This…bloodlust. All I wanted was to them suffer and die for what they did to us… No. To me. I wanted to make them pay. I snuck out through this opening in the floorboards to sneak outside._

The two guys who were talking led the others, totaling six towards the building. The de facto leader of them treaded slowly towards the house, brandishing sharp weapons, knives and machetes and even an axe.

They all glared straight at the house, and the bike. The bike seemed cool, and the lead guy liked the SS lightning bolts. He walked up the stairs with the others all staying a bit further behind him. A crossbow bolt flew straight into his neck, spilling his blood everywhere, and horrifying the five remaining guys. She

“Let’s just get outta here, guys,” said one of them, the one that didn’t want this to begin with. They each started to run away when gun fire opened on them. Two of them were hit, one in the back and one through the leg. The one shot in the leg fell to the ground and his buddies left him behind.

The other one held his back as they all got into the truck, only to discover that the keys were gone. “Fuck, where are the keys?”

The other guy in the front seat tried to find the keys, only to notice Beth standing close by. They all saw her approaching the man on the ground, shot in the leg, only able to see a vague ominous figure in the darkness brandishing a bright machete. She slit the guys throat open, almost completely beheading him. Even in the darkness, they could still see the blood emerging from the guy’s neck like a high-pressure ruptured hose.

They saw the vague silhouette of Beth look straight at them. She ran straight towards the car to the horror of the men inside. After that, it was every man for himself. They left the injured guy behind, getting out to save themselves. The other guy stumbled out after the others. Beth reached him first, swiftly impaling him and moving on.

There was one guy running in a straight line from her. She took out her gun and fired two shots. The first missed, but the second struck him in a lucky shot to the back, right in his spine, instantly paralyzing him. Walkers stumbling through the trees made their way straight for the screaming paralyzed man. They all gathered around him, diving into their meal as he screamed and attempted to thrash him arms against them. He was screaming for a long time before the blood loss finally knocked him unconscious, and he was subsequently devoured whole.

There was only one remaining asshole to hunt down. He ran back out onto the road, brandishing his flashlight. The woods were too cluttered and hard to navigate for him to stay in there. He was completely lost, looking around for any sign of anything familiar. His flashlight was the only thing allowing him to see.

Every sound around him was the girl, was Beth coming for him. Every movement of the branches in the wind was her vanishing into the trees. Every rustle was her getting closer to him. But natural sounds like that were _everywhere_. He had no way of knowing where she was, or what direction was away from her.

He foolishly stayed in one spot, looking around, trying to decide where to go. Until his flashlight ended up shining directly on Beth sprinting right at him. She rammed straight into the man, catching him entirely off-guard. He landed squarely on his back, dropping his flashlight. It rolled to the side and stopped with the light shining on him and the blood-drenched Beth.

The girl menaced the cowering man, brandishing a knife from one of his own guys. The man froze seeing her with a menacing scowl, which only displayed a tiny fraction of the tempest of wrath raging inside of her. She buried the knife deep into his stomach, and it was a large knife, like the one Daryl had.

She sliced him open, exposing his internal organs. She reached into his open wound and ripped out his intestines, spilling them out over the pavement. She kept a good hold on his small intestine, squeezing it and cutting it with her knife, wanting him to suffer. Beth looked at her prey, watched him as he died from blood loss over one long minute.

The murders complete, Beth returned to the cabin where Daryl was still unconscious. She checked on him. She walked around to organize some of the stuff she got out of the marauders’ truck. They had a good amount of food on them…no doubt stolen from other survivors. She walked down the hall where she happened to glance into a mirror.

_I saw what I had become over that day. Earlier that day, I looked like every other girl. But when I looked again, I saw a monster, covered in blood. Not just dots, but full blood all over her face. I didn’t recognize her._

_I had no choice but to kill those three guys, those first three. But those others? I wanted to kill them, I wanted them to suffer. And the thing is, it felt good to watch them die. It felt good to kill them, to watch their lives end by my hand. That was how much I hated them. And when I looked in my reflection, I realized what I did. I felt more guilty for killing a deer than for killing other people…_

* * *

“…and I haven’t felt guilty for killing anything since then.”

Maggie was nearly in tears from what her baby sister just told her, the fact that she was carrying so much pain and guilt. Daryl looked down to the ground, feeling horrible that he wasn’t there for her then to help her.

“And that scares me every day. I’m afraid that I’m or I’ll become a monster. I didn’t have to kill those men, but I did it anyway. I wanted to, and I did, and it felt good,” Beth said.

“You ain’t a monster,” Daryl said.

“Not by a longshot,” Maggie added. “You killed them because they were a threat.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that I _liked_ it. I liked feeling that power over them.”

“You wanted revenge,” Daryl spelled out. “You wanted revenge and you took it. Don’t make you a monster, it makes you human. And it don’t change that you’re a good person through and through. I mean, fuck, you feel guilty for it. That says a lot.”

“People can feel guilty about a lot of things, doesn’t make them good people,” Beth retorted.

“True,” Maggie conceded. “But you _are_ a good person. You argued against me and everyone else for Axel and Oscar. You believed in them when no one else did. You wanted them to stay here. I mean, hell, _you’re_ the one that reminded us what Rick said the night after the farm. This is a place where we can build something, not just for us but for other people.”

Beth looked to the table in thought.

Maggie grabbed her hands. “And maybe it is a projection of your guilt, but you know what? That means you’re good. And people like you are why everyone should beware the sweetest ones. Because good people will protect the people they love.”

Beth appreciated the encouraging speech from Maggie.

“I ain’t got _that_ much to say, but you’ll always be a good person compared to me. I’m glad you didn’t know me back up in Atlanta,” Daryl commented.

Beth chuckled. “Oh, I have seen that side of you. Did you forget the argument about who scared the flock of turkeys away?”

“I didn’t scare ‘em away,” Daryl defended.

“I didn’t even move my feet.”

Maggie laughed out loud. “Alright you two.” She kissed Beth on her forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mag.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a very long chapter that faithfully follows the plotline of Season 3, Episode 6.

Beth and Daryl shared a shower together under the cold spray. The cold jolt woke them up like a pot of coffee…or maybe a more accurate analogy was a shot of adrenaline. Powerful adrenaline. They always said that the cold wakes you up really good. And it did just that.

“How did it feel getting that off your chest?” Daryl asked.

“Amazing. It’s like this weight’s been lifted off my soul.”

He pulled her to face him. “You know, for the longest time, I would look at you, and you just weren’t you…like…I wanted to talk to you, but after the first time—”

“It was my fault. I just wanted to forget that it happened. I tried to convince myself I was fine, but I wasn’t. Part of me wishes you ignored what I asked,” Beth said.

“Asked?” he interjected softly. “When I brought it up, you screamed at me never to bring it up again. You sounded like you were ready to tear me to pieces.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You had shit to deal with. We all do. We all deal with it differently.”

“How did you deal with yours?”

“Cigarettes, followin’ my brother around, actin’ like an asshole, huntin’.”

Beth tenderly touched her face, remembering the stories of his life he told her, most poignantly the story about the day he lost his mother. No child should ever grow up without their mother, or at least a woman who could fill that role. Carl had everyone else, as did his baby sister. But Daryl was alone with a cruel man with whom Daryl shared fifty percent of his DNA.

Beth turned off the flow and the couple got dressed. This time, Beth didn’t steal Daryl’s vest. It was too big and clunky on her anyways. Big enough that unless she buttoned it up, it’d get in the way of her arms when they’d naturally hang downwards.

The couple returned to the common area where they enjoyed breakfast. Oscar was with the group, much to Beth’s joy. For a moment, she wondered where Axel was, but the group’s lack of worry reassured her that he was just somewhere else in the prison. She was happy that they had a chance to become a part of them, that her wishes were answered. If this place was to be somewhere where people could start over, they had to start with somebody.

The couple enjoyed breakfast with the others. Things finally felt like they were calming down. The family they’d built here was growing together, through thick and through thin. All except for one person, Rick. He was still in the tombs, probably the boiler area. Carl seemed to be holding together alright.

Beth took charge of taking care of the baby, cradling the little bundle of joy in her arms. She noticed Maggie and Glenn looking at a phone book. She sat with them.

“Find anything?” Beth asked.

“A few places where we can find bullets and formula,” Glenn answered.

“Anywhere with feminine care products?”

“Why would you need—? Oh, right. Pregnancy stuff?” Glenn asked awkwardly.

“A test specifically. I’m still not a hundred percent sure.”

“We’ll find something, bring it back,” Maggie said.

“No, I wanna go.”

Maggie and Glenn looked alarmed. Everyone else in the room noticed, too, particularly Hershel.

“If you are pregnant, you are not going out there,” he said. “There’s no reason for you to.”

“I know. But there’s this part of me that’s sayin’ that I have to do this myself. Not by myself, but I have to go out there myself and get it,” Beth answered. She felt incredibly stupid for even bringing it up. Even she was wondering why she felt this odd need to go out there, get a test for herself.

Hershel and Maggie glanced at each other and smiled. The former said, “Just like your mother.”

Beth looked at her father in wonder.

“When your mother suspected she was pregnant with you, I offered her to get a test for her. She wanted to get it herself, said that she was the pregnant one, therefore she should get the test for herself. I see the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

He smiled at the fond memories of his late wife. All three surviving Greene family members smiled, thinking about Annette, Patricia, Otis, Jimmy, Arnold, Shawn. All of them. They didn’t think of how it all ended, only the joyful times. The good memories.

Maggie still looked resistant. “Look, Mag. I know it doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t even to me. But…just let me out this once. And if the test is the positive, I’ll never leave this prison until the baby’s born.”

Maggie sighed and looked at her boyfriend. “I’ll watch out for her,” he reassured her.

“Okay. But you don’t get careless, not for one second,” Maggie told her firmly. Beth nodded. She couldn’t believe that they actually would let her go. Her poor explanation of just feeling the need to be the one to go out there personally…Beth was sure she’d be relegated to the prison. She never expected to hear that her mother was the same way.

Beth and the others continued to enjoy a calm breakfast after a chaotic and painful previous day. Beth focused all her attention on the little baby in her arms. The most innocent creature in existence right now. She couldn’t wait to give her a name. Somehow, caring for this baby came to her naturally. It just flowed through her like she had done it a thousand times, cared for a baby.

She glanced to her side, where Carl was sitting quietly. She playfully took his sheriff’s hat and put it on her own head. He smiled at her. Sheriff Greene. That had a nice ring to it. But the hat wasn’t hers. She gave it back to him in short order.

“Maybe you can find a cool hat like this out there,” he said. Beth smiled and nodded.

Everyone went back to eating their meals. Carl might have been a little bit upbeat speaking with Beth, but alas, he had shot his mother less than a day ago. He looked to his food somberly, sullenly. Beth couldn’t help but think of how something that was once her mother pulled at her pigtails and tried to kill her. Maybe it was better that way, better that he didn’t have to witness his mother as a walker. A familiar male voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Everybody okay?” Rick came back. He looked different. He must have showered and changed, cause he looked nasty the last time Beth saw him, and that was _before_ he ended up mowing down walkers with an axe single-handedly in the tombs.

“Yeah, we are,” Maggie answered.

“What about you?” Always leave it to Hershel to be the one most concerned about other.

“I cleared out the boiler block.”

“How many were there?” Beth wondered why that had anything to do with anything. Did it really matter the number of walkers if they were _already_ dead?

“About a dozen. Maybe two. How many were in the medical block?”

“I think almost thirty of them,” Beth answered.

Carl added, “We ran out of ammo and we had to get creative with the armored ones.”

This was the first time he actually asked about what happened in there. He wasn’t too happy to learn that he could have ended up walker food and wasn’t happy with Beth either. Neither was Daryl. Both angry for separate but highly understandable reasons. They at least made it clear that they were grateful that they got the supplies for Hershel.

“I have to head back. Just wanted to check on Carl.” He tapped his sullen son’s back. Beth didn’t like how Rick seemed so distant from Carl at a time when he needed his father most.

Glenn quickly stood up. “Rick, we can handle taking out the dead bodies. You don’t have to.”

“No, I do.” Rick approached Daryl. “Everyone have a gun and a knife?”

“Yeah. We’re getting a little shorter on ammo than I like, though.”

“Me and Beth were planning on making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula.” Glenn tentatively added, “And a pregnancy test.”  

Rick looked straight at Beth. Four days ago, Rick would’ve been livid at the idea of her heading out, even if it was just a suspicion that she was pregnant. It made it all the weirder, at least to her, that he’d be without complaint for it.

“We cleared out the generator room. Axel’s there tryin’ to fix it in case of emergency. We’re gonna sweep the lower levels as well,” Daryl said.

Rick nodded. “Good. Good.”  He promptly left back into the tombs, ignoring Hershel’s call for him. If the boiler block was all cleared out of the dead, why did Rick feel the need to stay there by himself? Maybe Beth was a little more on the nose than she would’ve liked when she thought he was a bit unstable.

Maggie looked to the ground and noticed Beth’s shoes. “Why are you wearing my boots?” Glenn noticed and was equally confused.

“No reason.”

“They’re big on you, you have your own for a reason.”

“And I have a reason for wearin’ yours,” Beth said with a smug smile. Maggie dropped the subject.

* * *

Beth and Glenn rode in the car to their destination. The former was quiet and distant, gazing out the window at the passing scenery. The greenery moving past. They were in the SUV, as it could carry more stuff more safely than Beth’s pickup truck.

Glenn wanted to say something, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Eventually, he just said what was on his mind. “Maggie told me what happened.”

Beth turned to face him.

“I’m sorry that happened to you. I wish that you guys had found us.”

Beth sighed. “A part of me does every day.”  

“Why only a part?” he noticed.

“If we had all been together for the entire winter, I’m not sure I’d be as strong. That and other reasons.”

Glenn thought about that for a moment. Getting separated from her family was horrible, and maybe it would have been better if she was with her family. But who knew if they had been if she’d still be alive? Maybe she would have died if she was with the main group. Maybe Daryl, too. And if they did survive, odds would have been against Beth and Daryl’s relationship blossoming to what it became.

“You just reminded me of Carl…and Sophia. If what happened hadn’t happened, I never would have found Maggie.”

Beth smiled. “I never would’ve met Daryl. And we’d probably all be dead by now. If not from walkers, then hostile survivors. That’s why I believe everything happens for a reason. Nature is cruel to produce the strong. Parents have to be harsh at times to raise good kids. A lot of good comes directly from bad things happening.”

“You got that right. But…I just feel that it’s still wrong. Every day, I wish Sophia was alive and Carl never got shot like he did. But—”

“I get it,” Beth interrupted. “More than you know.”

“Do you ever think about the world before? Ever think what we would’ve been to each other in the old world?” Glenn asked.

“No, I actually never thought about that before,” she confessed.

“I think about it all the time,” he said.

“We probably just would’ve been strangers who gave each other a short glance and a smile.”

“Maybe. I bet Daryl would’ve been the guy your father would warn you to stay away from,” Glenn whispered, as if he were gossiping.

Beth chuckled. “Not really. He’s not like that. Quite the opposite, he might have offered him and his brother a job on the farm if they happened to drift through. Pay ‘em generously, too.”

“Well, Daryl I can understand. You never met Merle, so I don’t think you can make that judgement just yet,” Glenn reminded her.

“Touché. He wouldn’t like it if we had a thing back then. No way.”

“Obviously,” he laughed.

“Daddy would’ve liked you then. Whether you saved Maggie from walkers, or just helped her out with groceries and her car,” Beth reassured him.

The conversation ended with Glenn smiling at her. Beth returned to her own thoughts, except now they had switched to something far more different. She got out her book and started writing down, even as the car jostled and turned.

_Earlier today, I finally laid it out all on the table. I told Daryl and Mag everything about that day that changed me. It felt good, like my soul felt clean. I basically had a fifteen-minute confession period with them. It was so liberating to let that off my chest. I felt like I owed it to Daryl, considering that he had been holding onto that, too._

_Glenn brought something up to me, about what would have happened had things turned out differently. The first one was if me and Daryl found our way back to them that day. When I think about it, part of me is grateful that we didn’t, because it let him and I grow closer, very close. I will never regret that. But at the same time, it was agonizing to be separated from my family for so long. Would we have found something in each other then? Would we have not? What I have actually died if I was with them? Would any of them have? Or…would something else have happened…and I would have been left alone?_

_One little thing can change everything. All these questions about what could have happened. It’s all so overwhelming. That’s why I always believed that everything happens for a reason. People die for a reason, people are cruel for a reason, the dead came back to life for a reason. The dead came back to life for a reason I can’t figure out and maybe never will. Sophia died…and that brought my family to Rick. I will never be happy that a little girl lost her life alone in the woods, but had that never happened, we never would have found Rick’s group. There’s no question that we’d be dead by now without his influence on us, even if for me it was brief. Rick…his group saved my family’s life, at least some of them. As horrific as it was, I am glad that they showed us that walkers are not sick people but walking dead corpses with nothing left of who they were aside from a vague resemblance to who they were in life._

_I don’t regret anything I’ve done now. I don’t regret hunting and killing the men that came after us. I might have been the one menacing and killing them, but now I realize that they were the cause of their own deaths. I had no intention of going after them when I brought Daryl to that house, I just wanted to get away. They didn’t let, so I made sure that they never could do that again. And now that my head’s clear, I can clearly see within me…that I will do that again and again and again if I need to protect myself and the people I love._

_One a much more lighthearted note, me and Glenn spoke about how things might have been had the dead not come back to life. How things would have happened. Odds are, we would have been strangers on the street, all of us. Maybe we’d meet Rick at some point, maybe Lori and Carl. Maybe not._

_I doubt I ever would’ve met many of the people I consider my closest friends and family now. Glenn? Maggie might have found her way to him regardless. Daddy would like him either way, because he’s a nice guy, if a bit quirky. The kind of guy that bumbles around awkwardly. Maybe a bit boring on the surface, but those are the guys with whom to have long relationships. If Daryl and I ever met…I can’t say for sure what I would’ve done. I can say that I would’ve found him attractive. I mean, every girl my age likes the look of a guy in leather and on a bike. I would only ever give him a second glance if he showed me his nicer side, even if it was a side he only showed me. I don’t like the idea of the cruel man, I always liked nice guys. Piper Halliwell on_ Charmed _put it best. They’re the best in the long run._

_As bad as this world is, I can’t bring myself to wish otherwise. I will always miss the living, and every day, I will always wish they were with us. I will always miss the days where I only worried about school and college and a career, but I can’t bring myself to say that I would give Daryl up for it. That’s selfish of me, I know that. But, that’s the truth. And I won’t lie to anyone, not myself especially._

Beth’s hand was cramping badly from all the writing she did. She closed her book and tossed it into the backseat. It was only now that she realized that the car was stopped outside a building. Glenn was smiling at her.

“You were so focused on that, I didn’t want to interrupt you.” He got out of the car. Beth followed, unable to hold her laughter in. “All clear outside.”

They were outside a pharmacy. Guess Glenn decided to try for a pregnancy test first. Probably several of those lying around. People would probably take a lot of things from pharmacies during the apocalypse. Pregnancy tests were probably not among them.

Sure enough, there were a few of them lying around inside. Glenn tentatively picked up a single box and handed it to her. Beth looked at the instructions on the test, the positive and negative indicators. The typical one line or two lines.  

Glenn went outside to allow her some privacy. He waited outside for a few minutes, with every second passing by like an hour. Beth emerged from the pharmacy, smiling, with the test in her hand.

Clear as day, no mistake about it. There were two lines.

She really was pregnant with her and Daryl’s baby. And she was smiling for it, though it was clear that she was extremely conflicted. It showed through her face like a light.

“Are you okay?” Glenn asked.

“Y—yeah. I think.” Part of her was scared that something would happen during or at the end of it…something that won’t end well for her. The other was happy to be the cradle of a new life.

“Yes, I am,” Beth repeated more firmly. It was the honest answer. She was truly happy for this.

“Congratulations,” he muttered. He hugged his honorary sister-in-law.

“Today really is a beautiful day.”

“I gotta be honest, I never thought Daryl would be a dad.”

“Neither did I when I first met him,” she admitted.

Glenn tapped her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go. See if we can’t find more stuff here, and then we’ll head to the discount mart. We are not staying out too long, not by a long shot.”

Beth shrugged. “Okay boss.”

The pair found some prenatal vitamins in the store. Some of them had expired, but others were still good for some time. Must have been new when the world ended. Afterwards, they headed off to the discount mart shopping strip. It was still light out, but it was kind of eerie just how much nothing there was everywhere.

Beth stared off into the trees.

“What is it?” Glenn said.

“Push comes a shove, we can just run straight that way to get back,” she said. Glenn got a feel for their location on the map and realized that she was right.

“Thanks for the note.” Glenn got the bolt cutters and cut the chains to the door into the discount mart. The store already had a few guests, some birds that made themselves at home. At Glenn’s insistence, Beth stayed out of the store, but that didn’t keep her from speaking her mind at least.

“Get that duck,” she ordered him.

“Are you serious?” he laughed.

“In case you forgot, we may not be prisoners, but we’re livin’ in a prison. It still feels a bit dreary in there,” Beth said. “A kid could use some toys.”

* * *

Daryl, Oscar and Carl wandered through the maximum-security area of the prison. One of the doors leading into the cells were clanking, something pressing on them from inside. A dead body jammed it shut.

“Must have missed it last night,” Oscar said.

“It’s probably just one or two of ‘em,” Daryl guessed. “Don’t look they got much fight. They ain’t goin’ nowhere. We can take care of ‘em on the way back.” If Beth was with them, she’d probably open the doors right there and kill them without hesitation or trepidation.

He tapped on a distracted Carl’s shoulder, leading him further down the prison halls. Feeling horrible about what happened to Carl’s mother, Daryl decided to share some of his own pain as they investigated the area. “You know, my mom, she liked her wine. She liked to smoke in bed, Virginia Slims.”

Carl looked straight at him with his largely emotionless cold face. Paying attention, but not betraying much emotion. Oscar stayed a little bit further back, listening intently to Daryl’s story.

“I was playin’ out with the kids in the neighborhood. I could do that with Merle gone. They had bikes. I didn’t. We heard sirens gettin’ louder. They jumped on their bikes, ran after it, hopin’ to see somethin’ worth seein’. I ran after them. But I couldn’t keep up. I ran around a corner and saw my friends lookin’ at me. Fuck, everyone was lookin’ at me. Fire trucks everywhere, people from the neighborhood. It was for my house. My mom in bed burned to nothin’. And that was the hard part. She was gone, erased, nothin’ left of her. They said it was better that way. It just made it seem like it wasn’t real.”

That was the most Carl had ever heard from Daryl directly. The former noticed how much the latter had become more open through the months of separation. It was kind of weird for him. He still saw Daryl as a brooding figure with social issues. Looked like he overcame that in the last several months.

“I shot my mom.” Carl said it so plainly, like it robbed him of being able to feel anything. “She was out. Hadn’t turned yet. I ended it. It was real. I’m sorry about your mom.”

“I’m sorry about yours.” He tapped Carl on the shoulder affectionately.

Carl walked ahead of Daryl. Oscar walked up to him and spoke quietly. “Have you and your girl talked about this yet?”

“About what?” Oscar gave Daryl an eye roll and looked at Carl. “Stop right there.”

“You know, the Catholic Church used to prepare expectant mothers for their likely death. Ancient Sparta was said to give mothers who died in childbirth honors like they would their warriors. Same said for the Vikings,” Oscar said.

“You want me to congratulate you for your history knowledge?” Daryl quipped.

Oscar touched Daryl’s shoulder. “I don’t like it either. But yesterday was a serious reality check. We don’t have the luxury of safe surgery anymore. And if your girl does have a bun in the oven, you need to prepare for that starting now.”

“Why? What the fuck’s that gonna do?”

The prisoner looked at the ground briefly. “Make it easier to save at least one life.” He attempted to be as euphemistic as possible. Daryl refused to acknowledge him…because he knew that Oscar was absolutely right about this, and Daryl wasn’t ready to face that.

Even worse was how Beth feared the same thing the instant she realized what happened to Lori. She and him didn’t even actually talk, so much as him convincing her that it would be alright. Maybe that worked for now, but they really did need to talk about it. Daryl knew that the pregnancy test, if Beth and Glenn found one, would probably be positive. He and she were going to have that discussion when she returned.

* * *

“We have hit the powdered formula jackpot.” Glenn came out with a basket full of formula for the baby. He had a second basket full of other things.

“Thank God,” Beth commented.

“Also got beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards. When we make it back, we can probably give them a real good dinner,” Glenn said.

“That would be nice. I’m just hopin’ I don’t start having cravings for those mustards and some pickles.” Beth and Glenn collectively cringed at the thought. Beth took the basket of formula. Glenn placed the basket of food in the car. “You know, it’s kinda nice out here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you can’t hear them out here. It’s just…quiet. Back home you can hear them outside the fence, no matter where you are.”

Glenn thought about how Maggie said the same thing to him once. And then a random voice suddenly screamed through the area.

“And where is it y’all good people are callin’ home?”

Beth instantly dropped her basket and drew her gun in the direction of the sound. Glenn did too. The person was a middle-aged man. On his right arm was a gauntlet fitted with a bayonet knife on its end…probably lost that hand somehow. He was all bloodied-up like he’d been in a fight. But the scariest part? Glenn recognized him.

“Merle?” Daryl’s brother…that explained the missing hand.

Merle laughed loudly, almost sounding relieved. He promptly put his gun to the ground…far too soon for Beth’s liking. It was no way it was going to be that easy. Her instincts as a mother and a survivor shot through the roof.

“Wow,” he said. The moment he took a step forward, that was it for Beth.

“Stop right the fuck there.” To prove her point, Beth shot the knife off his prosthetic. It broke off like a piece of glass, and the momentum made him jostle a little bit.

“Whoa now, okay. Okay. Jesus.” He took the hint and stopped in his tracks. He was still very giddy with a huge smile.

“You made it,” Glenn said.

“Can you tell me, is my brother alive?” Merle asked.

“Yes,” Beth answered without hesitation.

Merle was visibly relieved with the news. “Hey, you take me to him, and I’ll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. Huh?”

No response from Beth or Glenn. They were staring intently at the metal around his amputation arm.

“You like that?” He waved around his right arm. “Yeah. Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Pretty cool, huh?” Obviously, a lie that both Beth and Glenn didn’t believe.

“We’ll tell Daryl you’re here, and he’ll come out to meet you,” he said. No objections from Beth.

“Hold on. Just hold on.” Merle nearly took a step forward, until he remembered the head of blonde hair glaring at him behind a gun. He looked at her with an odd expression, his own form of respect for this girl. “The fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. You can trust me.”

“You trust us,” Beth jabbed. “Stay here.”

Merle chuckled.

“I would really hate to have to shoot my own brother-in-law,” Beth said. “And my child’s only survivin’ uncle.”

“What?” Merle said flatly.

“She’s pregnant,” Glenn said. “It’s Daryl’s.”

“Yeah fuckin’ right.”

Beth pulled the test out of her pocket and threw it at him. It landed face up in front of his feet, the positive mark obvious. She was hoping throwing him this card would be enough to make him stand down from whatever he had planned.

“No way. Ain’t no way you’s knocked up with a Dixon child.” He didn’t say it out of misogyny, just out of disbelief.

“Please don’t make me do this,” Beth said. Merle kept looking at the test on the ground. For a brief instant, Beth looked at Glenn. Unfortunately, it was one instant too many. One shout from Merle later, and the back window of the car shattered from Merle pulling out a gun and firing it. Beth quickly dove around the car away from him. She regained herself quickly and ran around the car, only to find Glenn being held at gunpoint in a chokehold.

“Hey, hey, hold up, girl. Hold up,” Merle warned.

“Let him the fuck go!”

“Put that gun in the car right now,” Merle ordered. “Put it in the car, girl.”

Unable to live with herself if one mistake cost Glenn his life, she complied throwing the gun into the back of the car, against Glenn’s silent wishes against it. She did the same with her climbing axe.

“There you go. Now we’re gonna go for a little drive,” Merle said.

“We’re not bringin’ you home,” Glenn said.

“No, we’re goin’ somewhere else.”

“That’s right. You’re gonna bring us to wherever your home is, well know this. You’re makin’ a huge mistake right now. See, wherever you put me, I’ll get out. And when I do, you better not get in my way,” Beth threatened.

Merle glared back. “Get in the car! Girl! You’re drivin’!”

She did as he told her. She walked around the car to the open backseat door. She was about to close it when she saw someone, a black woman with dreadlocks hiding on the others side of a van close by in front of them, through the filthy windows. Beth didn’t care about why the woman didn’t interfere, and in fact was grateful that she didn’t. This was her and Glenn’s only chance to let them know back home what was happening.

Beth looked straight into her eyes and pointed straight to her right, mouthing the words, “Straight through.” She pulled out the basket from the backseat, setting it down discreetly away from the car, and did the same with her little book.

“My name is Beth Greene, by the way, thanks for askin’.” A sarcastic jab that Merle bought completely, responding with his own dry wit. Beth hoped the black woman with dreadlocks had everything she needed so that the people back home would trust her…if she was even a good person. She slammed the car door and got in the driver’s seat, flashing one last glance at the woman before getting in and speeding away. She hoped and prayed that the black woman with dreadlocks was a good person who would fulfil Beth’s wish.

* * *

“Oh, now that’s what I’m talking about.” Oscar dove into a cell. Daryl and Carl followed after him to find that Oscar was…geeking out over a pair of slippers. “Yeah, buddy.”

“What the hell you need slippers for?” Daryl asked.

“You know. End of the day. Relaxing.”

Daryl cracked a little smile. It didn’t last long before a walker ambushed them. All three fired at it. Oscar and Carl fired their guns and Daryl fired his crossbow. They killed it, kind of overkill considering that two of them hit the walker’s head at once.

Daryl took a few breaths to shake off the jump scare.

“Must have been in the cell at the end,” Oscar commented.

Daryl noticed something off about the walker: the knife embedded in its neck. He pulled it out. “This is Carol’s knife.” She was somewhere in here. She was somewhere close by. He realized that given that every other walker was dead, that left only one walker remaining. The one in that cell.

He quickly went back to that cell, sitting in front of it as its door constantly pushed open over and over again, no matter how many times he closed it. He sat in front of the cell door, banging Carol’s blade into the ground in anger. Carl and Oscar left him alone, sensing his anger.

He stayed there for several minutes, listening to the constant banging in anger. And then it was too much. He pulled the body blocking the door out of the way and opened the cell, ready to kill Carol’s walker form. But there was no walker. It was just Carol. She was sitting in the cell weakened but very much alive.

Daryl immediately picked her up to get her out of there and back to C Block.

* * *

Hershel, Maggie, Carl and the baby stayed in the common area. Maggie had become the baby’s primary caretaker in Beth’s absence. Hershel had found Rick in the boiler room, ranting about receiving phone calls…into an unplugged phone.

Currently, only Maggie knew about it. It was better if they just let him find his own way to grieve and cope with the loss. As it turned out, that was the right idea, because when Rick came back, he seemed far more put together. Put together enough that he acknowledged his newborn baby daughter. Hershel, who was swaddling her, handed her to Rick. He took the innocent little bundle of joy in his hands, feeling her. It all came back from those early years when he and Lori first had Carl.

The five went outside into the fresh sun. The three surviving Grimes family members all stood together in the warm prison courtyard, a beautiful moment of peace after a horrible storm. Maggie and Hershel were happy to see Rick back to how he was before. Not just before Lori’s death, but he seemed more upbeat…like how he was after his son healed up from his gunshot wound.

Rick looked at his daughter and then at his son. “She looks like you,” he said.

However, something caught Rick’s eye out in the prison yard. He gently handed the baby over to Carl. “Hey. You got her?”

“Yeah,” Carl said.

“Alright.”

Rick headed into the field, going straight for the fence. On the outer rim were numerous walkers.

And there was someone carrying red store baskets. The same black woman with dreadlocks that Beth saw hiding behind the van. She looked straight at Rick, letting go of one basket and grabbing the outside of the fence, her body covered in guts and her leg stained with her own blood.


	14. Chapter 14

Glenn was tied to a chair at the end of a wooden table in what looked like a torture room. One the wooden wall was what looked like a spring bed frame on the wall. Like something you could tie someone to for electrocution. Merle was in the room with him, dragging a brand-new knife attached to his prosthetic across the table. Glenn had visible marks on his face. Merle’s face was clean, and his nose bandaged.

“You don’t even know why you’re here, do you?” Merle asked. “I didn’t mean you no harm. I lowered my gun, but you raised yours. And that girl shot at me.”

Glenn remained silent.

“You were an asshole out there, just like you were on that rooftop back there in Atlanta,” Merle added. “What y’all did, leavin’ me up there—people wouldn’t do that to an animal.”

“We went back for you,” Glenn admitted.

“Ain’t you thoughtful?”

“We did, all of us. Rick. Daryl. T-Dog.”

“Mm, T-Dog. Big ol’ spear-chucker, the one I was pleadin’ with. The one who dropped the key. Tell me where he’s at. I’m sure T-Dog would like to bury the hatchet, let bygones be bygones.”

“He didn’t make it,” Glenn told him.

Merle menaced Glenn’s face. “Well, I hope he went slow.”

There was an odd moment of Merle just menacing Glenn’s face. When they first met, Glenn would be fearful and wouldn’t be able to hide it. Now, Glenn was glaring straight back at Merle, the same asshole that went crazy on the roof.

“How about the rest? How about my baby brother? You can’t tell me he’s alive and then not tell me where he is.”

No response.

“No? Maybe the little badass farmer’s daughter will help me out,” Merle commented.

Glenn glared at her. Merle immediately had the wrong idea. “Tell me something. Are you her baby daddy?”

“No.”

Beth was listening to the whole thing from the other side of the thin wall. She was tied to her chair and helpless to do anything to save the man that her sister loved, the man that she loved as a brother. She listed to Daryl’s brother’s sickening words.

“Tell me. When she’s scared and she’s holding you close and her trembling skin is close to you,” Merle touched his new knife to Glenn’s face and neck, trailing down his skin, “her soft lips are touching you here, all over here, and over here. Feels good, don’t it?”

Beth’s stomach cringed and she almost felt nauseous from Merle’s words. Of course, he didn’t believe Beth when she said Daryl was the father of her baby. And of course, he’d automatically assume the man with her was the real one. She wanted to cry for Glenn, and for her sister. The promise that she made to her, the promise that she’d come straight back and take it easy.

Glenn said nothing, not bothering to try and convince Merle that what they said was the unequivocal truth.

“I remember you. You’re the sneaky one. The one with nerve. You don’t scare easy, do you? I like that. Now,” Merle pressed the flat of his hand knife against Glenn’s lips, “I wanna know where my brother is.”

The pressure was so intense that Glenn ended up grunting in pain as Merle pressed the knife with more and more pressure. It was so easy for Beth to handle her own pain, but to hear someone else suffering in her stead was a torture beyond words. Eventually, Merle took the blade away and continued. “I wanna know where the sheriff is.”

Glenn answered with a headbutt, striking him straight in the nose. Blood poured from Merle’s freshly opened injury. Unfortunately, that was all Glenn managed to do, aside from pissing Merle off. The one-handed man returned the favor in earnest, adding a punch to it.

Many more punches followed. Loud punches that Beth could hear clear as day through the wall. All she felt was guilt for it. So much guilt. And if Glenn didn’t survive the punches, Beth would never forgive herself. She couldn’t stop herself from trembling and sobbing in terror as she listened to Glenn being beaten by Merle.

She knew one thing though. This guilt, this sorrow, this terror, all of it was good for her. All it would take would be for them to press the wrong button, just like the men that tried to rape her and kill Daryl. One wrong button, and a different side of Beth would come out. A warrior would come out the survivor, and warrior Beth would tear through everything in her path to escape with Glenn. And if Glenn didn’t survive…nothing would be left of this place by the time she’d be done with it.

* * *

Rick and the black woman with dreadlocks stared intently at one another, with the latter constantly pressing against her aching leg wound. Carl, Maggie and Hershel came down, having seen the woman, with Carl not hesitating to open the first gate preemptively. Maggie was carrying the baby. The woman touching her wound stained her hand with fresh blood that got the attention of the walker standing next to her, alongside all the others.

Realizing her precarious situation, she backed away from the fence, dropping the other basket. She stumbled, drawing the katana she was carrying on her back. She swiftly impaled a single walker’s head.

“Should we help her?” Carl asked his father.

Rick said nothing. He walked slowly back to the inner gate around the bus. More and more walkers began surrounding the black samurai woman. Her leg injury was debilitating and draining her, but she fought through the fatigue that was rapidly setting in, decapitating yet another walker.

Slowly but surely, she weakened more and more, to the point where all she could do was impale a walker’s abdomen and kick it away. Her exhaustion progressed, worsening to the point where she was losing consciousness. She fell to the ground, helpless to save herself, as all her strength had left her.

All she could was watch two walkers approach her as her vision failed. And then loud gunshots rang out, and the two walkers fell to the ground with holes blown through their heads. Carl saved her.

“Carl!”

The kid threw Rick the keys to open the gate. The latter noticed the walkers were stirring, alerted and attracted by the gunshot. He got the gate open, and he and his son shot the walkers surrounding them to death. Rick checked on the strange woman while Carl retrieved the baskets.

“Is she bit?” Hershel asked.

Rick saw her leg wound and instantly recognized it. “Gunshot.”

The group brought the weakened woman back into the prison common area. “Carl, get a blanket. Maggie, water and a towel. She’s not coming in the cell blocks.”

Rick set the woman down on her back onto the blanket.

“Steady now.” Maggie gave him a bottle and a clean towel. He wet the woman’s chest to stir her a little bit, reassuring her that she was okay. The woman slowly regained her consciousness. Rick spoke to her, but his words fell on deaf ears. Once she was aware of Rick being right above her, the strange woman immediately reached for her sword out of instinct. Rick kept it away from her and held her down.

“We’re not gonna hurt you unless you try something stupid first, alright?”

Daryl walked in. “Rick? Who the hell is this?”

“You wanna tell us your name?”

No answer. She glared daggers at him.

“You wanna tell us your name?” Rick repeated.

No answer. She kept glaring at him.

“Y’all come on in here,” Daryl said.

“Everything alright?”

“You’re gonna wanna see this,” Daryl answered.

“Go ahead. Carl get the bag.”

The kid did as his father said. The woman remained in her spot, completely unmoving and staring at everyone with a menacing death stare.

“We’ll keep this safe and sound.” Rick referred to the woman’s sword. “The doors are all locked. You’ll be safe here. And we can treat that wound of yours.”

She sighed. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

“Doesn’t matter. Can’t let you leave.”

Rick locked her into the common area behind him. He followed Daryl to a cell, where he finally saw what Daryl was talking about. It was Carol. She looked worn down, but she was okay. A smile came to Rick’s face. She stood up and he wrapped her up in his arms. “Oh, thank God.” He said it several times, grateful that she made it.

“How?”

“Solitary,” she answered.

“Poor thing fought her way into a cell,” Daryl said. “Must have passed out, dehydrated.”

Carol looked at Maggie and instantly noticed the little baby in her arms. Having once been a mother herself, she immediately smiled and nearly shed tears of joy. She turned to congratulate Rick…only to realize that Lori wasn’t here as well. Her smile vanished as the mournful look on Rick’s face confirmed her suspicion. She touched his face and said the only thing she could. “I’m sorry.”

Tears came everywhere. Carol cried, as did Rick and Carl. Wanting to see what Lori sacrificed herself to bring into the world, she focused on the baby, cradling her head and feet in her weakened hands.

The strange woman watched the tender reunion through the bars. She sat down at one of the tables away from the door, holding the towel to her wound. A few minutes later, Rick and Daryl came in, the latter brandishing his crossbow and Beth’s notebook. Hershel followed behind them.

“We can tend to that wound for you, give you a little food and water, and then send you on your way. But you’re gonna have to tell us how you found us, and why you were carrying formula.”

“And this.” Daryl flashed Beth’s notebook at her.

“The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty pregnant blonde girl,” she answered. Hershel and Daryl both stirred, alarmed.

“What happened?”

“Were they attacked?” Hershel asked.

“They were taken,” she said.

“Taken? By who?” Rick questioned.

“By the same son of a bitch who shot me.”

Rick crouched in front of her. “Hey, these are our people. You tell us what happened now!” He grabbed at her injury.

She immediately stood up, defiant and disgusted with Rick. “Don’t you ever touch me again!”

Daryl held his crossbow straight at her face, his body vibrating with fury, and desperation to know what happened. “You better start fuckin’ talkin’. Or you’re gonna have a much bigger problem than a gunshot wound.”

“Find ‘em yourself.”

Seeing no point in escalating to violence, Rick encouraged Daryl to stand down. “Put it down.” He realized something else. “You said the girl’s pregnant; how do you know that.”

“The supplies weren’t the only thing they dropped.” The woman pulled Beth’s pregnancy test out of her pocket. Daryl quickly took it. He and Hershel immediately saw the positive indication.  

The three men looked at her for an explanation.

“You came here for a reason,” Rick reminded her.

The woman thought for a moment. “There’s a town. Woodbury. About 75 survivors. I think they were taken there.”

“A whole town,” Rick repeated, alarmed.

“It’s run by this guy who calls himself the Governor. Pretty boy, charming, Jim Jones type.”

“He got muscle?” Daryl inquired.

“Paramilitary wannabes,” she condescended. “They have armed sentries on every wall.”

“There a way in?” Rick asked.

“Place is secure from walkers, but we could slip our way through,” she claimed.

Rick thought about a different fact, something the woman shouldn’t have known. “How’d you know how to get here?”

“Beth sent me.”

Daryl perked up. “What do you mean she sent you? And how do you know her name?”

“She saw me hiding when the asshole showed up. She pointed to the woods, made sure I knew where to go, and then told me her name. She pretended to introduce herself to the asshole,” she explained.

Daryl partly regretted his misguided anger towards her. She came here because Beth asked her to do so, a lifeline that she could have easily ignored. Of course, given the wound, she might have just come here hoping for treatment. Didn’t matter. She still came here, and still told them of Beth and Glenn’s predicament.

Daryl needed to find something to call her by. Well, she had a katana, so Samurai seemed like a good fit.

“This is Hershel,” Rick said. “Father of the girl who was taken. He’ll take care of that wound for you.”

Samurai glanced at Daryl. “I take it, you’re the father of her baby.”

Daryl nodded.

“Figures.”

* * *

Beth sat in her cell, listening to Merle and Glenn through the thin metal. Her heightened sense of smell was normally a curse, but especially here. She can smell the blood from Glenn from this side of the metal, and it was really making her want to vomit. Beth took comfort knowing that Glenn was alive. Otherwise, Merle wouldn’t be talking with him.

“I gotta hand it to you. Lot tougher than I remember. No surprise you lasted this long. Shoot, I figured the way Officer Friendly abandoned people, he’d have left you behind by now. But he didn’t do that, did he. So tell me, where y’all been at?”

“It’ll be a matter of time before they come looking,” Glenn warned.

“I’ll bake a cake with pink frosting. Would they like that?” Merle laughed. “Ain’t nobody comin’.”

“Rick is. And when he gets here—”

“He’s gonna do nothing, not if he wants you and Bo Peep back. Think I’m in this by myself?”

“You can’t take us all. There’s too many of us.”

“There ain’t no pair of nuts between the whole pussy lot of you.”

Glenn looked at him. “Maybe not. But there are two people who have more nuts than any of us. And one of them is in the room next door. You better hope she doesn’t find an opening.”

Merle’s cocky smile faded. “I know. Why do you think I went right for you and not her? I’ve seen that look in her eyes before. I went for her, I might have gotten her and the expense of my nut sack and an eye.”

“And then there’s the rest of us. And we’ve been on the road nonstop, not hiding in some dungeon. Rick, Shane, Dale, Jim, Andrea.”

Merle laughed. “Really? Is that right?”

Beth had listened to everything. She was happy that she looked the way she did. She was always looking for a way to do something. She was looking for that moment of weakness. Merle found hers. She was going to find his. And may God have mercy on anyone else who might dare to get in her way. And she already had the tool she needed.

But neither of them knew that Merle knew Glenn was lying about the group. Because unbeknownst to them, Andrea not only made it off the farm, she was a resident of the town. Merle had found her and brought her to Woodbury, and he knew that Dale and Jim were already long since dead.

* * *

Carl kept his hand on his gun, watching as Hershel stitched up Samurai’s leg. She looked at him with the same menacing expression as with everyone else, especially Carl, since he was the one with a gun. However, in an odd moment, she said, “Thank you,” to Hershel.

The others were in the cell block, discussing their next course of action. Carol was with them, caring for the baby, sitting on the steps. She had recovered a bit from her ordeal, having had a nice meal and good drink of water.

“How do you know we can even trust her?” Oscar questioned.

“This is Beth and Glenn, why are we even debating this?” Maggie yelled.

“We ain’t. I’ll go after ‘em,” Daryl volunteered.

“Well, this place sounds pretty secure. You can’t go alone.”

“I’m going too. Don’t try to talk me out of it,” Maggie affirmed.

“Me too,” Axel volunteered.

“I’m all in.” Oscar stepped up.

Rick looked around, pleased at the fact that everyone was stepping up to save Beth and Glenn, and that he had some options. “I’ll take Daryl and Maggie along with the newcomer. The rest of you need to stay here and keep this place from falling apart while we’re gone.”

No one objected. Everyone listened to Rick as he told them what to do, what supplies to bring and everything else. Oscar and Daryl packed up in car. Tear gas, flashbangs, and numerous firearms. Daryl was only too eager to get moving to save the first woman he ever loved and one of the few men in the world that was still wholly kind and decent.

How fucking cruel was it that of all the people to be taken, Glenn, the one guy who was always nice and kind, if with a side that was violently defensive of his family, was the one taken. Hell, that could be mentioned for Beth in a different vein. An overall nice girl, yet extremely deadly. Daryl wondered if they were walking into a rescue or a bloodbath incited by her.

Carl brought some more weapons and ammo.

“Don’t you worry about your old man. I’m gonna keep my eye on him,” Daryl reassured him.

The kid opened up the gate.

Samurai asked him, “Wasn’t this place overrun?”

“It was.”

“And you cleared it out all by yourselves? Just the few of you?”

“No,” Carl answered. “Daryl and Beth did. They were here before we were, cleared it out themselves.”

“Just the two of them?” She looked at the kid incredulously, disbelief.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Carl.”

She looked around briefly. “Michonne.”

Rick pulled him aside, away from the others. It was time that they spoke about what happened, especially since Rick didn’t make the time to do so before, when Carl still needed him. This was to make up for it.

“What you did for Mom—” Rick started.

“I had to.”

Rick hesitated. “I know. I know, and I’m sorry. No one should have to go through that. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“You were. You are.” Carl grinned at his father, who returned the favor. “How long are you gonna be gone?”

Rick couldn’t answer that, because he didn’t know if he’d return. He never knew, not anymore. “Look…if something happens while we’re gone—”

“We’ll be fine,” Carl reassured him.

Rick finished what he wanted to say. “If anything happens, you get everyone in the cells. Keep ‘em all safe.”

His son nodded. “I will.”

“I know. I know you will. And you take care of your sister, alright?”

Rick only took a few steps before Carl said, “Daryl’s been calling her Ass-Kicker.”

“Ass-Kicker?” Rick chuckled. “Has he, now?”

“I’ve been thinking about what we should call her.”

“What do you think?”

“Remember my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Mueller? Judith was her first name. Do you think that’s good?” Carl asked. For once, he actually looked like a little boy instead of a traumatized little soldier…something all too rare these days.

“I think’s that’s a fine name. Judith it is.”

Carl smiled and walked along with his father to the car. The latter massaged Carl’s neck as they walked, just like he did before he got shot in the shootout…before he woke up to find the world overrun with the dead.

Carol held Judith in her arms. She looked at her with a bright smile. It seemed that Judith had that effect on everyone around her. Carol gazed upon her with a wide grin, but behind it, she felt a lingering scar for her lost Sophia. She remembered the time when her own daughter was a little baby. She hoped that baby Judith would get a chance to live and grow up to become an adult. Hopefully, she wouldn’t find herself in perpetual fear. Maybe she would get to have an actual childhood.

Rick, Daryl, Maggie and Michonne drove off. They kept driving until Michonne told them to stop, saying that they’d be better off on foot, since Woodbury had guards everywhere. The women took point, leading the way.

Rick took the opportunity to speak to Daryl. “I know what you did for me and my baby, while I was working things out. Thank you.”

“It’s what we do,” Daryl downplayed his actions.

* * *

The bloodied and battered Glenn tried to struggle his way out of the chair. And then Merle barged into the room, with a walker on the end of an animal neck restrainer. He wordlessly walked into the room with the walker and let it loose on Glenn.

Thankfully, Glenn’s legs weren’t restrained. He stood up, still attached to the chair and at an awkward angle. He moved away, using the spring bed frame on the wall to block the walker from reaching him. All it could was reach for him through the metal.

Glenn wiggled his way free from its hands and pinned it back by kicking the table onto it. As it recovered and stood up, Glenn bashed the chair against the stone wall, breaking it.

Beth listened to the fight with horror. “Glenn! Glenn!” She hated how helpless she felt, how she felt like she couldn’t do anything. “Glenn!”

The walker charge at him right as he broke the chair enough that he could move his arms. He blocked the walker, using the duct tape. The thick tape that bound him saved him from its bite. Two strikes later, it had a sharp piece of wood through its head.

He primally screamed in anger at what Merle did.

“Glenn!”

“I’m alright!”

* * *

Merle was outside the building where Beth and Glenn were being held prisoner. He spoke with an attractive pale-skinned guy, the Governor, the same man that Michonne had warned Rick’s group about. With them was one of his henchmen, a Latino guy wearing his hat backwards named Caesar.

“So, they know Andrea,” said the Governor. His voice was soft, fatherly almost. To those his own age, he’d sound like a caring friend.

“But they don’t know she’s here,” Merle clarified.

“But they do know your brother.”

“He does. They both claim that she’s his girlfriend.”

“You don’t believe it?” Caesar asked.

“If you knew my brother, you wouldn’t ask me that. I ain’t never seen her before,” Merle said.

“Their people may come for them,” whispered the Governor.

“Maybe. The kid and Andrea both said they went back for me.”

The Governor looked around in thought. “So he won’t break, say where his people are?”

“He’s a tough son of a bitch. Picked that walker apart in minutes,” said Caesar.

“Maybe a winter in the sticks put some hair on his balls,” Merle commented.

The Governor changed the subject. “What’s the girl say?”

“I was just about to go talk to her next,” Merle told him.

“I’ll take care of it.” The Governor and Caesar headed back in the building.

“You should know, she’s the bigger threat. I mean hell, she shot this off me.” Merle pointed to the knife on his right arm. “That’s why I went for him, I knew he couldn’t fight back against me.”

For some odd reason, Merle didn’t tell him that she was pregnant. Something inside of him just said not to tell him that. He trusted it. That was also the reason why he went after Glenn. If Beth fought back against him or Glenn tried to do something anyway, he didn’t want to have to kill a pregnant woman. He was beyond doing that. But then again, that wasn’t saying much about his standards.

* * *

The Governor walked into Beth’s prison alone. He looked at her with a pitying expression, like he wanted her to think that he didn’t like what was happening to her. It didn’t work. She refused to believe Merle, and she was right. She wasn’t about to fall for something from this man.

This felt familiar. A larger man menacing her when she was helpless, just like the guy who earned himself a massive hole in his neck

He pulled out a knife from his belt. Beth kept her eyes glued to him as he walked behind her. She expected to be cut, but he instead released her binds, letting her hands free. He slowly walked back around the table. She pulled the rest of the duct tape off her wrists.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing to the chair.

No response.

“Thank you.” He sat down. “We’ll take you back to your people, explain this was all just a misunderstanding. You tell us where they are, and we’ll drive you there.”

“Let me talk to Glenn.”

The Governor shrugged. “I can’t allow that. Your people are dangerous. Handcuffed my man to a roof, forced him to amputate his own hand.”

“I wasn’t around for that. I do know they went back for him. How else would I know that he traversed the whole building until he found a kitchen, cauterized the stump and crawled out a broken window into the walker-ridden city of Atlanta?”

The Governor looked at her, examining her. Maybe he was starting to believe what they claimed. Maybe not. “So they did go back for him?”

“I think you know what that means. I don’t have to say anything because they’re gonna come for us,” Beth boasted.

“They don’t even know where you are.”

“Oh, but they will,” she taunted. She couldn’t guarantee that, but she knew that all it would take was a place to start, and that was all that was needed. “And they will come for us.”

“I don’t think so. You just tell us where they are, and we’ll bring them here. You’ll be safe. I promise.” The Governor’s voice sounded nice and soft, comforting.

Beth said nothing, averting her eyes.

“No? Fine. Let’s try something else. Stand up, please.” Please? Yeah, like that made him sound so good and polite. He leaned forward towards her, his voice dropping and losing all semblances of false politeness. “Stand up.”

She did.

“Take off your shirt.”

“No,” Beth refused.

“Take off your shirt, or I’ll bring Glenn’s hand in here.” Even when making threats, the Governor still sounded as affable as ever, emphasis on _sounded_.

Beth let her emotion of fear come through. It’s easy to be brave against your own agony. It’s difficult to be brave enough to let other people, especially loved ones, suffer the consequences of your inaction. She took off her shirt and spitefully threw it at the Governor.

He looked at her expectantly. When she still did nothing, he threw up his hands. “Go on.”

She looked at him in utter revulsion, like he was a literal pile of shit. She did as she was told, taking off her bra. She skirted around letting him see her bare breasts, using one arm to hold it on when the straps were off and the letting it fall while her arms were crossed over her breasts. He looked only slightly disappointed.

He took off his utility belt. Beth shut her eyes, trying to resist the urge to scream in terror. It became harder and harder to fight her emotion of fear. What was he going to do? Rape her? Beat her until she miscarried? What else was there?

He stood up and walked around the table to her. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her skin. His breath on her was like scalding water, painful and unbearable. Bile and acid rose through her throat. The way he touched her hair and her skin made her want to vomit out every organ in her body.

Then he grabbed her and pinned her to the table, his groin pressing against her. She felt how he was hard, and it made her sick to think that he would do this. But she held her ground, if not physically, then mentally.

“So you gonna talk?”

She remained defiant. “Nothin’ you’re about to do is anythin’ I haven’t already been through. Do you want and go to fuckin’ hell.”

He kept his hand on her, tracing across her face and her hair and down her back, making her shiver in the worst way. He stepped away from her and walked out of the room. It didn’t matter that he was never inside her. It was like he went all the way anyway. It made her feel like a piece of meat, like an object, like something that was to be beaten and tossed to the side.

That was the worst. That was the Governor’s fatal mistake. The same anger Beth felt when those men were beating Daryl, and one of them was going to rape her returned with vengeance, flooding every cell in her body. Any emotions, like sadness and fear and disgust, became a magma-hot rage. Her angry and disgusted expression as the Governor left could only capture a fraction of what she felt. No matter what other emotions she might feel or display, there will be this wrath that would last until she was safely out of this dungeon.

She looked down at the inside of her right leg. She was wearing one of Maggie’s boots that were a bit big on her, and with good reason. She pulled up one of her pant legs. Sticking out of her boot was the handle to the climbing axe she found before. Her tool to get her and Glenn out of this mess. Now, all she had to do was wait for the right opportunity.

* * *

Glenn walked around his cell, still badly battered and bloodied. He fashioned some wood into a melee weapon. He heard the banging on the other side of the wall, and for who knew how long was worried about what happened in there.

Other problems came in the form of Merle and a Caesar wielding a machine gun. Glenn reared to attack, but there was no point. But then the Governor came into the room with the topless Beth in tow. Any sense of preservation went out the window the moment he saw that. He went straight forward, intending to beat them.

“Hey! Drop it!” commanded Caesar.

Glenn did so at Beth’s nod.

“We’re through with games.” The Governor pulled out a shiny silver pistol. “Now one of you is gonna give up your camp.”

He clicked the hammer. He approached Glenn with a scowl. But he didn’t point the gun at him, he pointed it at Beth’s face, to Glenn’s sheer horror. The former closed her eyes, expecting to be dead in minutes, until she heard Glenn’s broken voice utter two words.

“The prison.”

“The one near Nunez?” Merle asked.

“That place is overrun,” Caesar said.

“You took that place?” Merle said to Glenn.

“How many of you are there?” asked the Governor.

“Ten of us,” Beth answered, shaking in fear now that they’ve revealed their home to these madmen. “There are ten of us now.”

“Ten people cleared that whole prison of biters?” The Governor didn’t sound like he believed it. Even though the truth that two people did it was even more difficult to swallow.

“It wasn’t that hard,” Beth said. “It’s pretty easy if you know what you’re doin’.”

The Governor said nothing. He did put his gun down. Whether or not he believed what Beth said was unclear, but he clearly was satisfied with what he heard. Before he left, he had one last thing to do. He took hold of Beth and started touching, wrapping his arms around her topless frame like she was his lover.

“Get your fuckin’ hands off me,” she demanded venomously. He didn’t listen, and even went low enough to kiss her forehead.

Glenn glared knives and daggers at him for doing that to Beth. Not only was it just wrong, but Beth was visibly young. At 17, she still looked like she could pass for 15. And yet, he still touched and molested her.

Finally, he let her go, where she immediately fell into Glenn’s arms, tearfully embracing him. Partly because she was so happy to see Glenn, and also just finally because the emotional barrier of pure wrath broke down as she felt secure in Glenn’s arms.

Before he left, Merle looked at them one last time. It was clear from his somber face that he hated what the Governor just did to Beth.

Somewhere else in Woodbury proper, the three men met with their smartest resident, a man named Milton. The almost archetypical nerdy kind of guy with no fighting prowess. Had no need for it, as he never left the town without someone protecting him.

“10 people? That’s deep in the red zone,” Milton said. The red zone was what Woodbury referred to the outside. “There’s no way—”

“So, he’s lying? Cause if he’s lying, that means a pretty sizeable force has moved into our backyard.” The Governor turned his focus to Merle. “But if she’s not, this group with your brother at its core has done something you said couldn’t be done. They did it.”

He looked around, alarmed at the news. Not because he saw them as a threat to his people, but a threat to his power.

The Governor glared right at Merle. “Right now, your brother could out there searching for them. Blood is blood, right? Make me wonder where your loyalties lie.”

“Here,” he answered.

The Governor ordered Caesar to put together a small group to scout the prison.

* * *

During the night, Michonne led the others to Woodbury alongside a defunct train car. She led them to the edge of the trees where they could see the wall of Woodbury, as well as the bright lights from the fires within the town itself.

All four of them glared into the town, especially Maggie. She had two stakes in this. The other three were there to help her save her sister and her boyfriend. Nothing was going to stop her from doing that.

Unknown to all except one of them, Andrea, one of their own old members, was wandering those very streets.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are going to be numerous horizontal dividers. It may be a little weird, but I'm getting a little better at adapting the continual scene and setting change here in this fic. It might feel like you're watching a show in your brain.

_Earlier that day._

A group of survivors fought through the woods against the never-ending army of the dead. Scouting ahead was a large dark-skinned man. He was running back to the other members of the group, almost running head-first into a shovel. It was his sister.

“Oh my God! Tyreese!” she said, frightened and relieved.

“Sasha, we gotta keep moving. Where’s everyone else?”

“They were right behind me. Please tell me there’s something ahead.”

“I didn’t get very far,” he said. “I thought I saw a tower past the trees.”

They heard the screams of another member of their group. They quickly ran through the trees to find the others. It was a family of survivors, mother, father, and son, all fighting together. The son ended up jamming his weapon into a walker’s head so deep that he couldn’t withdraw it.

“This way!” Tyreese yelled.

The family ran after Tyreese and Sasha. The mother trailed behind her husband and her son. A walker grabbed hold of her.

“Mom!” screamed the teenage boy. Her husband ran back to help her, but it was too late to save her. The walker bit deep into her arm, ripping out skin and flesh like it was just paper soaked in dark red ink. He batted the walker away and helped his wife to move through the trees, not leaving her behind.

Sasha came back to help him and cover their rear. The group emerged to find a decimated building surrounded by a wrecked fence.

“We don’t a clue what’s in there,” Sasha said skeptically.

“We know what’s out here,” Tyreese retorted.

Sasha nodded and looked at the woman. “Not with her,”

“Don’t,” said her husband.

“She’s slowing us down,” Sasha pointed out.

“She’s right,” said the bitten woman. “You gotta leave me.”

“No, please. They’ll tear her apart.” her husband begged quietly.

Tyreese pulled Sasha aside. “We can’t do this.

“Donna’s suffering,” she reasoned, “and when she turns—

“Ben’s not ready to lose her.”

Sasha didn’t refute her brother’s claim, but it was still not smart. The painful look on the teenage Ben’s face at the idea of leaving his mother behind…it didn’t help things any. Donna was holding tightly onto her husband, shivering from the pain of her bite wound.

“It’s a mistake.”

“Maybe,” Tyreese admitted.

They both watched as more walkers came into the clearing. There was no point in arguing, and Sasha knew there was no point in trying to change the good-hearted Tyreese’s mind. She stepped out of the way to let him help Donna move under the mangled fence and through the bricks.

Together, they headed into the wrecked building, which was a section of the prison complex that Rick’s group called home.

* * *

_Present_

Andrea, the same woman from the original Atlanta camp, looked in the mirror fixing up her hair. She noticed a picture on the stand, one of the Governor, a little girl, and a blonde woman, a picture of the Governor in a previous life. She didn’t know much about it, only that he had a daughter. She thought about Michonne, and how Michonne saved her ass time and time again, only for their friendship to end on such a sour note because of the latter’s mistrust in Woodbury.

Andrea wanted to believe in the best. She believed this place was worth it, blissfully unaware of the Governor’s true sadistic and malevolent nature. He walked up behind her, naked and wiping off the sweat from his forehead. He placed his bare front against her back.

“I promised Milton I’d help him cremate Mr. Coleman’s body.” A recent death in Woodbury. Mr. Coleman, an old man who died of untreated cancer, the most natural death Andrea had seen in some time.

“That’s sweet of you,” said the Governor. “But if you’re still rattled, he can handle it.”

“If anything, he’s probably the rattled one,” Andrea joked. “All these people you’ve brought together, they’re here for more than just protection. They’re helping each other through all of this.”

“Is Woodbury growing on you?”

Andrea smiled. The pair shared a kiss before she left the room. She believed so strongly in Woodbury and in the Governor, but yet she was completely unaware of who he really was. Blinded by lust and their relationship, she failed to see his darker self. Not wholly her fault, as he took steps to hide it.

Once she left the room, he opened the door to a secret area of his full of water tanks. They all had severed heads in them. Some were clearly from walkers, but others were human. All for his personal viewing and a sick, demented sense of pleasure. But that wasn’t why he was here. He opened a small gate in the room.

“Penny? Honey?” A small child violently emerged, moaning and groaning. She was chained up with a burlap sack over her head. He pulled the burlap sack off her head. It was the same little girl from the picture, but she wasn’t alive. She was a walker.

Yet, the Governor deluded himself into seeing her as something more than dead. Pretended that she was alive, treated her as such, touching and caressing her body like she was still his living daughter. She got too aggressive, so he put her back in her cage.

He summoned Merle to his room. They discussed the prison and what to do about it. The Governor complimented on the group for a smart move. What once kept people trapped and others out now protected a bastion of survivors.

“You ever think about movin’ this place over there? Takin’ it over?” Merle asked.

“People love it here because it feels like what was. Move them to damp cells surrounded by barbed wire? No,” the Governor shot down the idea. “We gotta take out the group that’s living there. Let the biters move back in. No one’ll be the wiser.”

Merle immediately thought of Daryl. “Problem is my brother’s with them.”

“Well, you’ll talk to him. Make him our inside man. He’ll get us in there. We’ll wave a white flag like we did with the National Guard.” Waving a white flag and feigning a peaceful meeting…the classic method they used to murder others.

The National Guard…Merle was a part of the militia sent to take them out after Woodbury found their crashed helicopter.  Merle thought about that for a moment. It sounded monstrous, but what could he do? Fight against his own boss, the same one he’d had for several months since Atlanta. Not a good idea.

“Nothing happens to Daryl.”

“Of course not.”

“What about Glenn and the girl?” Merle asked.

“The longer they stay here, the more chance Andrea will find out. Take them to the Screamer Pits.” Those were where the Governor kept captured walkers for his sick circuses designed to distract the town residents.

Merle quickly had a thought. “The girl claimed to be my brother’s girlfriend. I didn’t believe her for a second, but now I’m wonderin’…if she was tellin’ the truth, then we can use her to force my brother to do some dirty work for us.”

The Governor glanced at him with a curious expression. He nodded, agreeing with Merle’s plan, not knowing it was actually not for him, but for Beth, to spare the life of her and her baby. Merle had the right instinct not to tell him about Beth being knocked up with his niece or nephew.

* * *

Beth and Glenn sat in their cell. The latter gave the former his shirt to wear. Blood trickled all down his face, he left eye swollen to the point where it was almost shut. After hours of nothing but just sitting together, Glenn asked her the big question.

“Beth. Did he—?”

Beth shook her head before he even finished. “He realized it was pointless, so he didn’t waste his time. I think it helped when I told him it wasn’t anythin’ I haven’t gone through before.”

Glenn sighed, disgusted and horrified. “Beth…I’m…I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anythin’ to be sorry for.” Beth stood up and dragged the dead walker’s corpse to them. “But now’s not the time to talk. We gotta get to work.”

Beth pulled off her boot and revealed that she had hidden her climbing axe in it. Glenn chuckled, finally figuring out why she wanted to wear Maggie’s shoes. Maybe he should get some more that are that size.

“Clever girl.”

“Not really. The shoes did a real number on my heels,” Beth commented. She buried the axe in the walker’s shoulder. She struck it and struck it several times. Glenn figured out what she was doing and helped her, pulling the arm off. He stomped on the arm, breaking the bones in it. He ripped out the shattered cracking arm bones and gave them to her. He equipped a pair of his own from the other arm.

Though Beth planned for this, she still felt sick at using bones as weapons…or more accurately, fresh walker bones. If it were any other animal, she might have been a little bit less sickened.

Now they were ready to fight back.

* * *

Outside the town, the four fighters scanned the outside of Woodbury, seeing what they were up against. And then Michonne vanished into the brush, against Rick’s quiet demands for her not to do so. They focused back on the town. There was no way they’d be able to check every building in the town with those guards everywhere. That, and they had too much stuff. They had to downsize, use smaller weapons.

A snapping twig grabbed their attention. It was Michonne, silently telling them that she had a way in for them. Maggie, Daryl and Rick followed her in earnest. They followed her closely through the brush. She led them through the walls to an unlocked door. It led through to a storage area for some food.

“I was questioned here,” Michonne said.

Beth and Glenn weren’t there.

“Any idea where else they could be?” Rick asked. She had to take a few moments to think.

He and Daryl glanced outside through the curtains. Michonne had said that there was a curfew, but there were people walking the street outside. This town was really just a bunch of buildings alongside a wide street with walls at its ends.

“Thought you said there was a curfew,” Daryl said.

“The street’s packed during the day. Those are stragglers.”

“If anyone comes in here, we’re sitting ducks. We gotta move,” Rick determined.

Michonne finally thought of another place. “They could be in his apartment.”

“Yeah? What if they ain’t?” Daryl jabbed.

“Then we’ll keep looking, somewhere else.”

“You said you could help us,” Rick said.

“I’m doing what I can.” Michonne hadn’t seen all of Woodbury, only the false surface and some of its darker underbelly.

“Then where are they?” Maggie asked.

Rick pulled her and Daryl aside. “If this goes south, she’s on her own.”

“Right now, it’s the blind leading the blind,” Daryl said, realizing that Michonne simply didn’t know where they held captives. “Let’s split up.”

And then someone knocked on the door. A man’s voice came through the other side, talking about how he saw them moving from the outside. Apparently, nobody was supposed to be in here at this hour. Given that he had to unlock the door, maybe there was supposed to be nobody in here at all. The man walked straight into the other room, where the group ambushed him. Rick pinned the man against the wall, placing his gun squarely against his cheek.

“Shut up.” He pushed the man onto his knees. He ordered Daryl to zip tie him. He asked the man, “Where are our people?”

“I don’t know.”

Rick grabbed the stranger by the throat. His voice dripped with violent intent. “You are holding some of our people. Where the fuck are they?”

“I don’t know,” the man repeated.

Rick accepted his statement as the truth. He stuffed a cloth into his mouth. Daryl subsequently knocked him with the butt of his crossbow, knocking him unconscious. They hid his unconscious body away in the building.

* * *

As Rick’s team hid within Woodbury, Merle and a soldier went to retrieve Glenn and take him to the Screamer Pits. The soldier unlocked the door and he and Merle entered. Beth was leaning against the wall and Glenn leaned with his palm propped against it.

The moment Merle walked in, Beth struck him straight in the chin with the blunt end of her climbing axe that she was holding out of sight. He was caught completely off guard and stumbled backwards. Glenn charged at the Woodbury soldier, body slamming him and forcing him to drop his gun. He tried to stab the soldier, but he put up a fight.

Beth dealt with Merle, striking him across the face two more times. He was bloodied just the same as Glenn. Not enough to kill him, but he was beyond fighting for the moment. She took his gun and returned to Glenn. She used her bone blade to stab the soldier through the neck, killing him quickly. All with a dull expression of grim concentration.

“Take Merle’s gun and ammo. I got this one,” Beth told him.

Glenn took Merle’s pistol and his ammo for it. He was coughing and sputtering, his teeth sore from the chin strike, and his skull might have had a couple of fractures from her striking. Beth took the soldier’s gun. She smiled, as it was an automatic weapon. He had some ammo for it.

“Come on. Let’s go,” Beth said. “Leave him, he’s not worth the effort.”

They left Merle in a bloodied heap on the floor. Unfortunately, they turned a corner to find two men with machine guns facing them, one of them was Caesar. Beth didn’t hesitate to shoot at them. Caesar dove into cover but the other one was quickly killed by Beth. The gunshots were heard throughout the town, instantly alerting everyone, including the Governor and Rick’s group.

“Fuck, there goes any chance of doing this quietly.”

Glenn and Beth opted to go the other way. Beth helped him, propping him on her shoulder, but keeping her machine gun pointed forward. Push comes a shove, she’d have to drop him to place both her hands on the gun, otherwise, she’ll just be spraying bullets everywhere. Caesar followed them, got off a few more shots but none of them hit.

The pair escaped out from the building. Caesar chased them but was too late to find them. The pair had successfully escaped. Glenn could barely walk and was barely holding his weapons. She dragged him until they found their way to a little building. They had no clue where to go in this town.

“God, this place is too much. We can’t be out in the open like that,” Beth muttered to herself, glancing through the window, cracking the curtain slightly. People were everywhere, running after having heard the gunshots. Beth saw the wall, saw it as their only chance to get out. But there were guards everywhere, and she knew that she had no chance against them on her own.

“Dammit,” Beth muttered. “We gotta go somewhere else, find another way out.”

The anger that fueled Beth rapidly faded away, giving way to her fear. That surge of anger gave her the strength to fight Merle. Now all she wanted was to get out of the town alive. The “town” was really a bunch of buildings fashioned into functional living quarters down a wide street. The main way out was through a single gate at one end. They had to find somewhere else to escape from, but they weren’t climbing anytime soon.

* * *

Tyreese and his group fought their way through the prison halls, fighting back against the onslaught of walkers until they found their way to the generator room. They were desperately holding back against the walkers.

Donna held onto her husband, screaming in terror. She could barely move herself anymore. All she could do was scream and scream. It seemed so pointless, all the fighting, as it seemed like it was for nothing as the walkers closed in on them.

And then the walker grappling Sasha’s hands fell to the ground when its head burst from a gunshot. It was Carl, he heard Donna’s screams.

“Come on!” he yelled. “Hurry!”

The group quickly followed after the boy. Donna’s husband carried her the whole way but was stumbling. Tyreese quickly came back, lifting her up himself, ignoring Carl’s insistence that they leave her.

He brought them straight back to the common area. Tyreese set down the exhausted and dying Donna on the ground.

“Donna? Baby?” her husband said tearfully.

“Allen…baby.” She weakly grabbed his hand, reaching another to her son. “Benny…I love you both.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, baby…”

The men shed tears as she went lifeless, her hands losing their grip as her eyes closed, never to be open again. Her chest rose and fell…and then just stopped.

“Mom? Mom! No! No, no no no no.”

Allen and Ben cradled Donna’s dead body, shedding tears onto her cooling skin. Carl cocked his gun, ready to place one bullet in her head to put her down for good.

“Whoa, kid! Wait a minute!” Tyreese said.

“She doesn’t have that long,” Carl reminded them.

Sasha jumped in. “Who the hell are you? How’d you get in here? Who are you with?”

Carl stopped her before she could keep bombarding him. “Look, we can help you. But first thing’s first.”

“We take care of our own,” Tyreese claimed. Proving his point, he grabbed his hammer.

Carl watched as he gently coaxed Allen and Ben into letting go of Donna’s body. They refused to leave her, but they had to face the fact that she was gone. Allen gave his wife one final kiss on her forehead. The father and son duo stood close to Sasha, away from her, sobbing uncontrollably.

Carl saw that, and everything seemed to freeze, as all he saw was a different version of himself and his father, the grief of what it is to lose the mother of the family. It was just like him, grief-stricken, and in agony. And Carl still was, at it had barely been a week since his mother’s death.

He snapped out of his grief and locked the newcomers in the common area. The sound got their attention, distracting Tyreese from putting down Donna.

“Hey! What are you doing?” said a shocked and scared Sasha.

“Did you just lock us in here?” Tyreese asked.

“This room is secure. You’ll be safe. You have food and water.” Carl reassured them.

Sasha grabbed the bars, demanding that he open the doors.

“I can’t.”

“Come on, man. We’re not animals. Don’t do this.”

Nothing from Carl, Oscar or Hershel.

Sasha desperately banged against the bars. “You can’t just leave us in here! Open it! Now!”

“Sasha.” Tyreese pulled her aside. “Back away from the door and let the man go. Look around you. This is best we’ve had it in weeks. His house. Besides, we got other things to deal with.”

Oscar smirked hearing Tyreese refer to Carl as a man, when he was barely over eleven years old.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Tyreese reassured them.

* * *

“Glenn?” Beth checked on him. “How are you holdin’ up?”

“I can keep moving if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Good. There’s no back door to this building. We gotta head back out there, sneak our way down, see if we can’t access the fences around this place directly.”

Beth gave him a spare shirt from inside. She held his hand and helped him to the door. She opened it and snuck out through, ducking away if she suspected there was anyone watching them. There was a much darker area without any lit flames illuminating it. It was the other end of the street, a wall. The buses were a perfect way to get over. She noticed a large group of some five people a good distance away. She could only see their shapes. It looked like one of them spotted them. Beth dragged Glenn into another building.

“I think they saw us,” Beth told him.

“Dammit.”

“Wait a minute, I got an idea.” Beth opened a window that led outside. Glenn crawled through it and then held it open for Beth to crawl through. They closed it together and then ducked out of the view. There was enough room to move behind the building towards the wall.

The group that spotted Beth and Glenn barged into the building. It was Rick’s group. Beth and Glenn had fled the building without even realizing they had been running from the people here to save them.

On the outside, Beth and Glenn navigated their way into another building. They encountered a woman with short-shorts and long brown hair in a ponytail and a nice-looking cap. She was about to scream before Beth strangled her to unconsciousness, locking her in a closet.

Inside, Beth found an assortment of bows, including her own trusty bows. She helped herself to some high-quality arrows while she was at it. Okay, not some, but all of it. Glenn ended up having to wear a quiver to help carry them. No big deal, as they still weighed almost nothing on him. Beth gave him her machine gun.

“Okay, we’re gonna try and do this quietly again,” Beth said. “Guns are a last resort.”

They snuck back outside. There were no barrels with fire, so they had the dark to their advantage. Beth snuck closer and closer to the buses. She was within good range. She drew the arrow, feeling the familiar tug of the bowstring. She took a few breaths, checked the distance, and aimed. It was an almost windless night.

Her aim and technique were true. Her arrow sank straight into one of the guard’s backs. She drew another arrow as the man with him looked around. She repeated her aiming routine and killed him too. The men took a few seconds to die with arrows having pierced their chest cavities. One of them ended up discharging his gun.

“Fuck! We gotta hurry!” Beth grabbed Glenn and ran after the buses. Beth helped him onto one of the buses. He took the arrow from the guard she killed.

As they climbed, they saw Woodbury soldiers coming. They scrambled to get away as gunshots rang out. They managed to make it over the wall and ran off into the trees just in time as the gunfire intensified. There were walkers everywhere. Beth used her new arrows as melee weapons and killed them. She and Glenn ran into the trees where they could hide from any pursuing Woodbury survivors.

* * *

_A few minutes earlier_

The group searched yet another house. The source of the gunshots was a dead end, but from what they heard from the guys there, that was where they were being held. Heard something about them ending up in the street. They ended up going from house to house, searching for them with no luck.

And then Daryl glanced into the darker part of the street. “I see them! Over there!”

It was them. Beth was dragging Glenn across the street. She looked right at them and hurried inside. The group wasted no time in getting over there and getting inside. Michonne didn’t enter with them, shutting the door and fleeing to fight her own fight with the Governor.

“Beth? Glenn?” Maggie said. “It’s us, come on out.”

“I saw them come in here, where are—Where’s the chick with the sword?” Daryl realized.

“She was right behind us,” Rick said.

“Whatever, she’s on her own now. We don’t got time to look for her.”

“Beth? Glenn? Come on…” And then Maggie looked at the window at the back of the room. “Oh God…they fled. I don’t they saw who we were.”

A couple minutes later, gunfire rang out everywhere. Rick quickly looked out the window in the direction the shots came in. He found Beth and Glenn. “They’re over there by the wall!”

Daryl dove to the window to look for himself. It was them climbing up on the bus as Woodbury soldiers started firing on them. Rick tossed out a couple of smoke grenades and started shooting, killing the Woodbury soldiers attacking the pair. However, there were several more coming, forcing them to protect themselves. But there were a lot of them, even with the cover of smoke.

“You two go ahead, I’m gonna lay down some cover fire,” Daryl said.

“No we stay together!” Maggie demanded.

“Too hairy. I’ll be right behind you.” Daryl tossed another smoke closer to the soldiers. Daryl took shelter behind a bench and started shooting away at the Woodbury soldiers, unaware that among them was his own brother Merle, and another one on the side of the street was Andrea, from the original Atlanta camp.

Daryl laid down cover fire as Rick and Maggie made their way onto the buses and over the walls. The moment Maggie landed; she knew the direction to go just based on the pattern of the dead walkers. She and Rick ran into the area.

“Beth? Glenn?” Maggie said loudly.

“Beth! Glenn!” Rick called.

Nothing.

Nothing.

“Maggie?” Beth came running from the tree line with Glenn on her shoulder. They had hidden close by, exhausted from their ordeal.

“Oh my God!” Maggie screamed. She squeezed them, embracing them with arms as strong as anacondas. “Oh thank God!” she cried.

Rick couldn’t help but laugh. “We came here to save you, but I guess you guys did that yourself…”

“Just you two?” Glenn asked.

“No. Daryl was with us. And a woman,” Maggie said.

Beth correctly guessed that Maggie referred to the same woman she saw hiding when she was taken, Michonne. That begged the question of where exactly Daryl was. Because he was supposed to be right behind them, but yet he wasn’t there.

Beth was horrified to think that something happened to him, and she hadn’t been there. She hoped that wasn’t the case.

Except…hope could turn out to be very disappointing.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am having a blast recreating scenes from the show. The advantage of being written in an omniscient perspective means that I can change the characters' thoughts and emotions about certain events. Most events remain but their end results will probably be different.

Michonne waited patiently for the Governor to return. Given the absence of gunfire outside, it seemed like a very likely prospect at this point. She sat with her sword on her lap, ready to assassinate him.

And then she heard the thuds coming from behind the locked door. She swiftly kicked it open, discovering the Governor’s secret den of sickening madness. Inside were the fish tanks, many of them, all with the severed heads he would look at. Most were rotten, obviously taken from walkers. But a couple of them looked outwardly human and lifelike…clearly, he murdered people and took their heads, too.

Michonne glared at the display in revulsion and anger. This man was crazier than she imagined.

She heard the thudding again coming from behind the grate. She opened it and found Penny, chained up and with the sack on her head. Michonne quickly believed that Penny was a living girl kept prisoner, kneeling in front of her and comforting her with soft words, reassuring Penny that she was safe, even unlocking the chain keeping her from going wild.

And then she pulled off the sack and saw that she was as dead as the floor beneath her. She retracted, shocked that the Governor was keeping a little girl, a little _walker_ girl no less, as a twisted prisoner in his insane secret room.

Michonne pushed Penny and moved to kill her.

“NO!”

The Governor was standing there, aiming a gun at Michonne, trembling, as he still believed Penny was in some way alive. Michonne quickly realized this and moved Penny in front of her.

“Don’t hurt her…” he begged. He put his gun in the holster, took off the utility belt, and put his arms in the air. The way he was breathing…it was clear to Michonne just how delusional this man was to believe that this walker was still his daughter.

“It’s me you want. There’s no need for her to suffer.”

Michonne looked at him incredulously. “She doesn’t have needs.”

“Please.” The Governor slowly entered the room, looking like he was ready to tear up. “Don’t hurt my little girl. Please don’t.”

Michonne responded to his pleas by impaling Penny through the mouth.

The Governor screamed barbarically in grief and charged right at her, pinning the samurai to a wall and clocking her across the face. Michonne fought back. They ended up tumbling over a chair.

The Governor jammed his hands around Michonne’s throat, crushing her neck. She escaped the death grip by striking him in the face with her sword’s scabbard. She took the upper hand and used it as, of all things, a garrote.

Michonne and the Governor were both fueled by mutual hated and anger for each other. Both wanted the other dead. But Michonne’s reason for being angry was far less delusional than that of the latter.

The Governor slammed Michonne back into a wall, stunning her enough that he took the upper hand once again, slamming her head against the wooden wall multiple times. He pulled her around and slammed her head into one of the fish tanks, where the reanimated heads bit at her.

She ended up pulling out and wrecking two tanks when the Governor pulled her back. He immediately took advantage of the wet walker heads all over the floor, pulling her into a chokehold and trying to get her bit. She managed to elbow him in the face.

Dazed and weakened from the fight, Michonne crawled after her sword. She failed to retrieve it before the Governor got his arm around her neck again. Unable to reach the sword, she reached something else, a shard of glass from one of the tanks. She cut her own had badly reaching it.

She broke the shard off the tank and sank it straight into the Governor’s right eye, destroying it. Where he once had an eye, all he had left was a mash of flesh and vitreous humor flowing down his face. He recoiled, instantly debilitated and overcome with the agony of his lost eye, left on the ground in overwhelming pain. Energized from her victory, Michonne grabbed her sword and readied to kill the Governor.

“NO!”

Michonne spun and pointed her sword at the person who came to save the Governor. Andrea. The latter glared at the former in sorrow.

“What have you done?” she said.

The two women who once were friends circled one another. Andrea’s look hardened from sadness to sternness and anger. Michonne lowered her sword and left, leaving Andrea alone with the Governor.

“Philip,” she said. His real name was Philip. “Oh my God…”

She went down to help him up, but he retreated from her to cradle the body of his now-fully dead daughter. That was when Andrea saw the remaining tanks. She looked at the walker heads and the clearly fresh human heads. Not to mention Philip cradling his daughter, who had clearly lingered between life and death for a long time now.

As pitying as Andrea was for Philip, even she couldn’t deny how crazy that seemed. The first thing she started thinking as watched him weep over Penny’s body was: _Was she right this whole time? Have I been blind?_

* * *

A female doctor in Woodbury kept watch over Philip’s condition. She tied a bandage around his mangled and wrecked eye, keeping some gauze over it. “It doesn’t look good. The glass has done a lot of damage.”

“I need to get outta here,” he said.

“Not yet.”

“Get out of my way!” Philip commanded.

“Can you give us a minute?” Andrea requested the doctor. The doctor left.

Andrea had many questions for Philip. The first thing that came out of her mouth was, “What the hell was that? Why was she here? Why were you fighting her?”

“She came back to kill me,” he answered.

This made no sense to Andrea. Michonne was many things, if not just a survivor but a fighter, but she wasn’t a cold murderer. Not like that. The only time she’d do that was if she felt threatened and needed to eliminate a threat before it got to her. Not to mention, Michonne didn’t seem much like someone who would just break back into a place to kill someone. “Why?”

“You tell me. You knew her.”

“And the fish tanks? The heads?”

“I made myself look at them. Prepared me for the horrors outside,” Philip claimed. For once, Andrea didn’t automatically believe him. Even to her, that was an honestly flimsy reason to have walker heads…and fresh human heads in tanks in a secret room.

“And Penny?”

Philip pretended like he didn’t hear what she said. Thankfully for him, Milton barged into the room.

“I just heard. Are you alright?” he asked Philip.

Merle barged in right after, preventing Philip from answering. “What happened to you?”

He glared straight at Merle, letting him see how he was down to one eye. “I was attacked.”

“They made it over the wall. I’ll go after them in the morning,” Merle volunteered, unaware that Philip was now well-aware of Merle’s lie; that Michonne was dead and gone when in fact, she was alive and well enough to mangle Philip’s eye.

* * *

Rick, Beth, Glenn and Maggie made their way back around to the spot where they originally arrived. They had no idea that Daryl was still trapped in Woodbury, captured. Michonne found her way to that same spot, still shaken and freshly beat up from the fight with Philip.

Beth wanted to run up to her to thank her for bringing her friends and family to this place, only for Rick stop her and point his revolver straight at her head. “Where the hell were you?”

No answer.

“Put your hands up.”

She did.

“Rick?” Beth muttered.

He ignored her, focusing solely on Michonne. “Turn around.”

She did. He took the sword out of her scabbard.

“Get what you came for?” Rick asked dryly.

“Where’s Daryl?” Michonne noticed his absence.  

“You didn’t see him?” Beth asked, her voice and lips trembling.

Michonne shook her head, no.

Rick threatened her. “If anything happens to him—”

“I brought you here to save them,” Michonne reminded him.

“Thanks for the help,” he said dryly.

“You’ll need my help to get them back to the prison, or to go back in there for Daryl. Either way, you need me.”

Rick took a moment to think about what to do when he realized that Beth wasn’t with them either. Maggie and Glenn only just realized it as well, having been focused on pointing their guns at Michonne. She had run by herself back into the town to go after her boyfriend, more than a little bit fed up from them wasting time.

“Maggie, take Glenn and Michonne back to the car. I’m going after Beth and Daryl. No time to argue, just do it.”

Reluctantly, Maggie did as Rick asked.

He returned to the town through the same way they came in. Thankfully, Beth was just right there waiting for him.

“About fuckin’ time. We can’t sit around talkin’ right now.”

Rick gave Beth one of the assault rifles. She strapped her bow around her back and equipped the rifle. They went through to the same building where Rick and his group initially searched for her and Glenn. They looked through the windows. The street was completely empty. This place was a ghost town lit only by barrels with fires in them. They had no idea if they should leave or not.

The pair treaded carefully down the street. There was literally nothing by this end of the strip. All they could was go downhill, being careful that nobody would find them. The sheer silence was the most alarming part. It was like everyone was just being quiet, trying to let them think they were alone.

At least, until they heard something coming from the other end of the strip. All the way, as in adjacent to the same wall that Beth and Glenn initially escaped from. They followed the sound of the crowd. They couldn’t understand what the cheering was all about, at least until they found the source of the loud noise in the defunct warehouse arena.

They found Daryl and Merle there, fighting each other with people holding walkers all around them. The crowd was cheering for Merle to kill Daryl. The Governor was standing there with blood trickling down from beneath his bandage. They saw Andrea there. A couple of guys were holding her while she looked on in shock and horror at Merle and Daryl’s vicious fight. The pair couldn’t hear her pleas for Philip to stop the barbaric practice.

Beth wanted to start shooting but Rick stopped her.

“Hang on a second.”

Rick got out the smoke grenades. Beth watched as Merle suddenly pulled Daryl up to his feet, standing back-to-back to fight off the walkers. Beth aimed down, focusing through the scope of her assault rifle. Once Rick tapped her leg, she started shooting. She killed the walker nearest to them. By her second shot, the crowd was running and screaming in terror.

As Beth fired, she ended up hitting the girl who took her bow in the chest. Beth scoffed at the irony of her having spared said girl earlier just to kill her. The people wielding guns all went on alert, searching for her. Rick threw the smoke grenade in, giving them and the Dixon brothers some much-needed cover.

Beth and Rick shot out the lights, darkening the warehouse. The guys keeping the walkers secure ended up accidentally letting them loose. Merle and Daryl fought their way through the smoke, killing walkers. They took down the guy who claimed Daryl’s crossbow.

Rick signaled for them using his flashlight. The crowd just ran right by them without even giving them a passing glance. Merle and Daryl followed the flashlight and they all ran away from the stadium. The whole time, through all the violence and chaos, Philip just looked on apathetically at his people’s suffering.

Merle led them to the wall where Beth and Glenn originally escaped. “They’re all at the arena. This way,” he said.

“You’re not going anywhere with us,” Rick declared.

“You really wanna do this now?” Merle started breaking down a piece of the metal panel that made up the wall.

He opened the panel and ran out, smashing the first walker’s head with his metal arm padding, adding it to the number of dead bodies on this side of the Woodbury wall. There were some more coming, attracted by all the commotion.

“A little help would be nice!” Merle dryly yelled.

Daryl, Rick and Beth helped, shooting out the other walkers.

“We ain’t got time for this!” Merle ran off down the street. The other three ran after him, following him as more walkers came, one of them discovering the opening in the wall. They all kept running until they had to stop, just for a brief rest.

Beth immediately jumped into Daryl’s arms, kissing him forcefully and very messily, finally expressing her joy at him being alive and alright. She damn-near missed his mouth and some of her hair ended up between their lips.

“Oh thank God,” Beth said.

“You ain’t fuckin’ leavin’ the prison again. Not for the rest of your fuckin’ life,” Daryl muttered into her neck. He shed a couple of tears that weren’t just for her, but for the fact that he found his brother in the worst possible way.

“Well, holy shit, baby brother. It’s true?” Merle laughed. “Ha ha ha ha! Wow! I ain’t never thought you’d have yourself a baby mama!”

Beth went from looking at Daryl with loving eyes to glaring at Merle with hateful ones. “You fuckin’ asshole! You’re the one who did this!”

“What?” Rick said.

“Merle’s the one that kidnapped us!” she revealed. “He beat the shit outta Glenn!”

Daryl glared at his brother. Any relief he had at being reunited with him was suddenly and drastically mitigated by what she just revealed.

“We don’t have time for this, let’s get back to the car,” Rick said.

* * *

Glenn, Maggie and Michonne were all waiting by the car for them. The first and the latter were still recovering from their respective injuries. They waited there together for what felt like forever, Maggie helping to treat and clean their injuries as best she could.

As the sun began rising over the horizon, Rick’s voice echoed through the trees. “Glenn!”

“Rick?”

Maggie immediately went forward and saw them coming. “Thank God.”

Beth ran forward to her big sister. She jumped in her arms just like she did with Daryl. Obviously, any kisses were to each other’s cheeks, not lips. Not that the problem of messy hair everywhere was any different.

However, the tenderness was violently cut short when Glenn and Michonne immediately turned aggressive at the sight of Merle. They were both screaming about how he tried to kill them. Rick defending Merle from Michonne’s sword and Daryl stood in front of him to keep Glenn from shooting him.

“I’m sorry, Bethy,” Maggie said. She had to let her go to point her gun at Michonne, trying to talk her down. Whatever else might have gone on, any screaming or the like faded into the background. All she could register was the growing intensity of Merle’s screaming, and then the sudden silence.

In fact, that was the last thing she registered before the adrenaline that fueled her faded like a fire that suddenly burned itself out. It left her feeling extremely sick and weak at the legs. The world felt like it was spinning around her, so much so that her legs wobbled as she tried to walk to the car.

Beth was certain that Maggie called for her. She wasn’t sure. It didn’t make a difference anyway, because Beth ended up falling chest-first to the ground. Maggie and Daryl immediately ran to her, checking on her. She was still awake, but her breathing was slow.

“Dammit. She’s exhausted. All that, and pregnant, it’s not good,” Maggie said. She ran to the car and got some water for her. A little bit of water on her chest brought her back a bit. She gave Beth some to drink. It brought her back enough that she could walk, with a bit of help, back to the car.

She immediately held her stomach.

“What’s wrong? Is it—?” Daryl started.

“I’m really hungry,” Beth muttered. “So fuckin’ hungry.”

“Language Beth,” Maggie said to her baby sister’s humor. “We’ll get you home and get you somethin’ to eat.”

“Sounds like a great idea.”

* * *

Back at the prison, Axel and Oscar prepared some food to the prison newcomers, bowls of noodles. Hershel fixed up Allen’s leg minor leg injury. Carl kept watch over all of them, not taking his eyes off them or his hand off his gun.

Hershel finished stitching Allen’s leg. “You can take those stitches out yourself in a week or so.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“Pretty nice having medical training,” Tyreese commented.

“It’ll only get you so far.”

“You were bit?” Tyreese guessed that was the reason why he had one leg. Hershel nodded.

Carl let Carol into the common area to feed Judith. All of the newcomers looked at Judith with complete surprise.

“How old is the baby?” Sasha asked.

“Two days,” Oscar answered.

Sasha approached Carol with nothing but a grin on her face. A baby…that confirmed to Sasha and her brother that this group is good. “To be honest, we never thought we’d see another baby. Beautiful.”

“Thanks,” Carol commented.

“How are you feeling?”

Carol looked around at them, for an instant confused. “Oh, she’s not mine.”

“Where’s the mother?” The solemn look on everyone’s face answered Sasha’s question. “I’m sorry.”

“Man, you people have been through the mill,” Tyreese said.

“Haven’t we all?” Hershel commented. Probably the understatement of the year. Nobody left alive in this world hadn’t gone through the ringer. Carol finished prepping the baby’s formula and returned to the cell block. Carl locked the door behind her.

“It’s only getting worse out there. The dead are everywhere. It’s only making the living less like the living.”

“You’re the only decent folks we’ve come across,” Sasha said. Hershel wondered how many indecent folks they came across.

“You’ve been out there this whole time?” he asked instead. He, knowing what Beth went through and how it affected her, didn’t want to pry open any old wounds.

Tyreese told him a story about a neighbor who was one of those crazy survivalist kinds, always preparing and claiming that the world would end, even had a bunker in his backyard. Who would’ve thought he was right? People like him might still be alive, maybe even have some power if they were off the main power grid.

“Sasha and I stayed in Jerry’s shed until we ran out of supplies. Allen and Ben were the first two people we ran into when we crawled out of that hole around Jacksonville,” Tyreese continued. “Used to be a bunch of us. 25 at one point.”

“Our camp was overrun. Six, seven weeks ago,” Sasha said. “And…Donna…” They all looked at the body of Allen’s wife, Ben’s mother, and a beloved friend to Tyreese’s people.

“We’ll see that she has a proper burial,” Hershel reassured.

Tyreese looked around the common area, looking at how good they had it. He had so much gratitude for Hershel and the others, and yet few words could encapsulate that. “I appreciate you taking care of us. For a while, we didn’t know who we were dealing with.”

“Neither did we. We’ve had our problems with people.”

“I must be the first brother in history to break _into_ prison,” Tyreese commented. Oscar loudly laughed with him on the subject. Said laughter spread to Allen and Ben. Poor Carl was too young to realize what that was supposed to mean. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Axel said, “Makes me the first white boy that didn’t wanna break _out_.” He and Oscar served the noodles to the newcomers.

Hershel looked around at them. He thought about Rick and his daughter Beth. He knew she was coming back, that they were both coming back. He also knew about how they clashed, if not necessarily physically, about sending people off and her idea of bringing people in. “Tyreese. Like I said, we have a much larger group. A close-knit group. I wouldn’t get too comfortable.”

“We wouldn’t be a problem,” Tyreese reassured.

“It’s not up to me.”

“Then who?”

Hershel said nothing. He returned to the cell block alongside everyone else.

“Please. You can see what kind of people we are,” he pleaded.

Oscar approached the door. “I know what it feels like. Believe me. They wanted to throw me out, but a couple of people didn’t. One of them…well…to say that she was vehemently against throwing us out would be an understatement. You guys will have a strong supporter when the rest of the group gets back.”

Tyreese’s group didn’t know what to make of Oscar’s reassurance. It only made them more afraid that they’d be thrown out when their leader got back.

* * *

“It won’t work.” Rick was not having anything with Merle coming back to the prison.

“It’s gotta,” Daryl said.

“It’ll stir things up.”

“Look, the Governor’s probably on his way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle,” Daryl said.

“I’m not having him at the prison,” Maggie proclaimed.

“Seriously Daryl? He kidnapped your pregnant girlfriend,” Glenn said. “You really want him sleeping in the same cell block as her or Carol?”

“She’s strong enough to handle herself against him,” Daryl claimed. Glenn knew that he was right, as she was the one to overpower Merle when they escaped.

“Maybe she is. But what about Carol?”

“He ain’t a rapist,” Daryl said.

“His buddy is.”

Daryl glared at Glenn for a few seconds. Glenn forgot that they hadn’t mentioned that this whole time. And Rick realized that they hadn’t talked about anything like that the whole time they were coming down. Beth said nothing about what happened other than that Merle was the one that brought them there. But it made sense with why Beth was wearing a shirt way too large for her.

He went straight back to the car. Michonne looked at him in concern as he looked through the window, finding Beth still sitting in the car resting. She looked at him, instantly recognizing his look of agony. She quickly got out of the car.

Daryl glanced at Glenn before saying. “That fucker…Did—did he—What did he do to you?”

Beth looked at him confused and then looked at Glenn. She realized exactly what he was talking about. “Nothing. He didn’t do anything to me. He stopped when he realized it was pointless.”

“That’s why you’re wearin’ Glenn’s shirt.”

“He said he’d cut off Glenn’s hand if I didn’t do what he said,” Beth said. “I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. He stopped when he realized it wasn’t gonna do anything.”

Daryl looked unconvinced.

“I promise you, he just…touched me. Nothin’ more.” What Beth said didn’t stop Daryl from fuming at his older brother.

“You asshole. You brought my fuckin’ girlfriend to a fuckin’ rapist?!”

“I didn’t know that he—”

“Bullshit!” Rick had to hold Daryl back from charging at his brother.

Beth remembered seeing Merle when the Governor brought her out of her cell. That shocked look on his face, disgusted even, constantly looking at her and Philip. And then when he started spitefully fondling her when Glenn revealed the prison, he looked completely disgusted. It was a stark contrast to the cocky and smug smile he always had on his face. She actually believed him…maybe the fact that he did help Daryl to get out of the arena helped her see the better part.  

 “I don’t think he’s lyin’,” Beth said.

“What?” Glenn interjected.

“The look on his face when he saw me…I don’t think he even knew what the Governor was doin’.”

“That doesn’t change what he did,” Maggie reminded her.

“No. It doesn’t.” As much as Beth believed that he might not have been wholly bad, she couldn’t bring herself to think better of him for it.

“You still want him to come back?”

However, as angry as Daryl was, he still felt love and loyalty for his brother. Close to nothing is able to sever that bond, the brotherly bond. The one he formed through a torrential lifetime of abuse from their father, the loss of their mother, and a complicated life of jails and drifting. His brother, through thick and through thin, they were brothers to the end.

“He’s blood,” Daryl muttered.  

“No. Merle is _your_ blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison.”

“And you’re part of that family,” Rick said. “But he’s not. He’s not.”

“I can’t leave him. I already did that once.”

If there was one person who could understand him, it was Beth. Little about her and Daryl was alike. Age and gender aside, they had as different lives as could be, part of what drew them to each other. She was drawn to the nice guy with a more aggressive side to him. He found love in the nice girl who never looked at him like he was some outsider.

But they were both the younger sibling to someone and had been separated from that sibling for the whole winter. They both knew the pain of not knowing if they were alive. They both knew the agony of accepting that they may not ever see them again, regardless if they were even alive. They both knew that the one thing they never wanted to do was to leave them again.

The only difference was that Beth had her father, too. Daryl? He really had nobody else he shared his life with. As much as Beth despised and hated Merle for his actions against her and Glenn, she couldn’t tear him away from his brother.

“Then you don’t have to,” Beth said. She grabbed her bow from the car and her quiver.

“What are you doing?” Maggie said.

“If you’re not gonna take him back, I will,” Beth declared.

“What?” Glenn said.

“If I have to deal with him at the prison every day…If I have to look him in the eyes, knowin’ what he’s done…but if that means that my baby’s daddy will have her father. I can accept that. I hate the idea of him being back at the prison, but I’ll power through it regardless.”

Beth didn’t know why she automatically treated her baby as a girl. She just instinctively said her. That was just the first pronoun that came out of her mouth.

“He’s not coming back,” Rick reiterated.

“Like I said, I’ll just bring him back myself.”

“He comes near that prison, we’ll kill him.”

“Then I hope you’re a _very_ good shot, because I will be standing in front of him the whole time.” Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. “My baby will have her father in her life. I don’t care what I have to do to ensure that.”

“You’re insane to think—” Rick started.

“ _I’m_ insane? Says the person who got phone calls from an unplugged phone in the boiler room,” Beth told him. Rick looked at her completely surprised. Hershel had told her about the situation in confidence.

Beth regretted saying that the moment it came out of her mouth. “I’m…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. That was wrong of me. All sorts of wrong.”

She couldn’t read Rick’s expression. Couldn’t tell if he was upset with her, understanding, neither. He looked around at the ground in thought.

“We can’t all fit in this car,” Maggie said softly.

Glenn glared at her. “I don’t believe this.”

“I’m not losing my sister. I thought she was dead for the longest. I’m not losing her again.” Maggie was as happy about this as Glenn was, and in fact agreed with him that Merle shouldn’t be allowed back…But the love she felt for Beth was stronger.

Rick sighed. It seemed like he might have been a bit moved, if not realized that this was going nowhere. “We can’t fit seven people in here.”

“Maybe Merle can ride in the trunk and Maggie can ride on Glenn.” Beth realized far too late just how sexual that sounded. She buried her face in her palms. It was only when Maggie giggled that she did herself.

“That’s definitely not gonna work,” Rick told her. “Car only fits five, not seven.”

“I’ll take him back myself,” Daryl volunteered. He got his backpack out of the trunk. “Meet you back there.”

Beth gave him a kiss. “See you later.”

Daryl walked off with his brother, who embraced him with a bright smile and open arms. They walked off into the woods. Maggie walked around to her sister. Beth knew that look on her face.

“I am not happy about this…but I do understand,” Maggie said. She pulled her baby sister, holding her tightly to her own body. Ever since Beth’s mother ended up in the barn, Maggie was the only person who could make her feel safe the way a mother could. The closest thing anyway.

Rick whispered to Michonne. “We patch you up, and then you are gone.”

The others didn’t hear it. Glenn was closer but too angry with all of this to hear it, angry with Beth that she would want Merle to come back at all. Angry that Daryl was so forgiving of Merle’s actions.

“Let’s go home, Bethy.”


End file.
